The US buried millions of gallons of wartime nuclear waste – Doge cuts could wreck the cleanup

The Hanford site, a decommissioned nuclear production complex in Washington state, still contains millions of gallons of nuclear waste. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

In the bustling rural city of Richland, in south-eastern Washington, the signs of a nuclear past are all around.

A small museum explains its role in the Manhattan Project and its “singular mission – [to] develop the world’s first atomic bomb before the enemy might do the same”. The city’s high school sports team is still known as the Bombers, with a logo that consists of the letter R set with a mushroom cloud.