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Protecting Hanford’s bat habitat

07.06.2010

One of the largest known bat colonies in Eastern Washington will get to keep its underground home at Hanford thanks to a study conducted by Washington Closure Hanford. The study helped document the importance of the underground concrete structure as a bat roost.

Called a clearwell, the structure used to hold water from the Columbia River before it was used to cool Hanford’s F Reactor. As a result of the study, the U.S. Department of Energy and Hanford regulators agreed the clearwell was an excellent bat habitat, posed no risk to people or the environment and didn’t need to be demolished as planned.

To view a video of the bats and their underground roost, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/WashingtonClosure#p/u/0/KyRju0zsolw.