Today, the Hanford site is a virtual ghost town and those involved in the clean-up project say they will need every dollar of the federal stimulus funds.

CNN: Federal funds aim to clean up nuclear wasteland

While debate continues over whether and how stimulus dollars should be used, the Tri-Cities area that surrounds the Hanford site -- which includes Richland, Kennewick and Pasco -- is reaping the benefits of the clean-up boom.

CNN: Federal funds aim to clean up nuclear wasteland

The Kennewick area has received a flurry of stimulus money to clean up the Hanford nuclear waste site, some of which flowed to local firms.

WSJ: Incomes Fall in Most Metro Areas

According to a Navy Environmental Impact Statement, the reactors will be put on barges, floated up the Columbia River to the site of the former Hanford nuclear production complex where they will be buried in a huge trench near reactors from smaller decommissioned naval warships.

CNN: USS Enterprise sailing off to history's scrap heap

Decades of improper radioactive waste disposal earned Hanford the notorious distinction of being most contaminated nuclear site in the Western Hemisphere.

CNN: Federal funds aim to clean up nuclear wasteland

Gerry Pollet, who runs a Hanford watchdog organization, says he supports using stimulus money to rid the nuclear site of its radioactive waste.

CNN: Federal funds aim to clean up nuclear wasteland

Hanford, which the Department of Energy says is the U.S.'s biggest environmental cleanup site both by size and by cost, occupies 586 square miles of desert along the Columbia River.

WSJ: Toxic Radioactive Find Adds to Hanford Cleanup Woes