Animal burrowing is critical to the formation of soils, and contributes to the interface, between geological materials and organic life. It also threatens the integrity of hazardous waste management systems using shallow burials. We surveyed Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south-central Washington 3 times, at sites where radioactive wastes from the production of nuclear weapons were released onto the ground surface and within engineered burial structures. We found abundant evidence of burrowing in the soils covering buried' waste sites by northern pocket gophers (Thomomys talpoides), Great Basin pocket mice (Perognathus parvus), badgers (Taxidea taxus), coyotes (Canis latrans), and other species, and we observed frequent ecological interactions among these fossorial species that likely influence the fate of radionuclides. Our observations contradicted recent Hanford biological surveillance reports, as well as recent legal testimony by biologists and engineers at the W o r d site and by radio-biologists representing the nuclear weapons complex. Radionuclides remain vulnerable to vertical and lateral transport by burrowing animals at Hanford, and when exposed to wind and rain, they risk inhalation and injury to humans and wildlife on and off the site. Scientific oversight and more rigorous sampling and monitoring methods are needed at Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
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