November 5, 2010 — A research team led by Peter C. Lichtner of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is using the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's (OLCF's) Jaguar supercomputer, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), to build a three-dimensional model of an underground uranium waste plume at the Hanford Site's 300 Area, only a few miles from the city of Richland, WA. Hanford, one of three primary locations for the Manhattan Project, produced a third of the nation's plutonium for defense. A better understanding of the underground migration properties of uranium, which has infiltrated the Columbia River, may aid stakeholders in weighing options for contaminant remediation. "The results could apply to other sites along the Columbia River that are contaminated too," said Lichtner.. "And what we learn from this site we should be able to apply to other sites as well, not only at Hanford, but also around the country."