Lawyer, author, researcher, and longtime advocate for people harmed by radioactive releases from the Hanford Nuclear Site
The Hanford Site, located along the Columbia River in Washington, was established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. It housed the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor, and its plutonium was used in the Trinity test and the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. During the Cold War, Hanford expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five plutonium processing complexes, supplying much of the plutonium used in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The site’s operations caused significant environmental contamination. Further, radioactive releases exposed workers and downwind communities to potential health risks, including increased risks of certain cancers and other radiation-related illnesses.
Trisha Pritikin is a Hanford downwinder. As she told the Atomic Heritage Foundation in 2018:
I was born and raised in Richland, Washington, the town closest to the Hanford nuclear weapons facility. I was born in late 1950, which is during the period of time –– the four decades –– of plutonium production at the facility. That’s relevant to the health issues that I will discuss later.
My dad worked in the 100 Area, which had, at the time, five production reactors, which was expanded over the years to the early ‘60s to nine production reactors.
Nuclear reactors line the riverbank at the Hanford Site along the Columbia River in January 1960.
Beginning at age eighteen, Trisha experienced serious health complications that she believes were caused by childhood exposure to radioactive iodine and other radionuclides released from Hanford:
People downwind, people in Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco, which were the three cities next to Hanford, and people through a vast downwind area were exposed to airborne radioactive particles. The communities down the Columbia River also got a lot of radiation from the stuff dumped into the Columbia River, which went all the way down to the mouth of the Columbia in the Pacific.
The exposures to children were primarily, but not exclusively, through the milk pathway. When babies were fed milk or milk products, or infants had dairy products, radioiodine was contained in those products… That was one of the primary exposure routes for a lot of the people there in the Tri-Cities and downwind.
The Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, where radioactivity was released from 1944 to 1971
Her health deteriorated significantly amid an undiagnosed autoimmune thyroid disorder, Hashimoto’s disease, and related illnesses. Despite debilitating health challenges, she persevered and became a lawyer, bringing her personal experience, legal knowledge, and determination to the struggle for recognition and justice for affected communities.
Trisha became involved in organized downwinder advocacy in 1989, convening a meeting in Oakland, California, for people who had moved away from the Hanford region:
I decided to organize a meeting here in California, the first one ever held for Hanford Downwinders, who might be here, because lot of people who used to live there have moved elsewhere. About 100 people came. It was a big meeting. John Gofman came, who is a really renowned scientist who’s now passed away, who used to work at Lawrence Livermore Lab and helped to extract the first plutonium here at Cal Berkeley. He came, and it was covered by the national media.
The stories of people who came were heartbreaking. One after the other, people would say something like my experience, or they’d say, “There’s this other cancer I have, in addition to thyroid cancer.” Or, “I have autoimmune problems, and I don’t know where they could have been caused by Hanford or not. Where can we get answers?”
Workers lay the graphite neutron moderator of B Reactor during construction at Hanford.
Trisha subsequently challenged federal agencies over their responsibilities to people exposed to Hanford’s radioactive emissions, including through efforts to secure medical monitoring for those at greatest risk.
She also became a plaintiff in litigation seeking to compel the U.S. Department of Energy to fund a recommended medical monitoring program. In Pritikin v. Department of Energy, the federal district court dismissed her claims in 1999, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision in 2001, finding that she lacked constitutional standing to obtain the requested relief. Although unsuccessful, the case reflected her continuing effort to secure meaningful federal action on behalf of exposed residents.
Trisha’s broader advocacy has centered on the decades-long In re Hanford Nuclear Reservation Litigation, brought by thousands of people who alleged that radiation released during plutonium production caused serious illnesses. The litigation produced a mixed and deeply contested record. The litigation ended in 2015, after approximately twenty-four years, with most plaintiffs either settling their claims or abandoning them. Settlement terms were confidential, and the outcome fell far short of the comprehensive recognition and compensation many families had sought.
A lot of people died during the litigation, or gave up. One lady committed suicide, because she couldn’t wait any longer, left a note saying, “I can’t wait any longer. This litigation has gone way too long.” One of the Downwinders committed suicide…
A lot of the people who did get at least small settlements in the litigation had other cancers, as well as thyroid cancer. They could only get compensation if they had thyroid cancer, thyroid nodules, or leukemias, if they lived on the river, and a couple of other cancers, which are river cancers. The other people didn’t get any compensation, because there was no way to establish the causal link between their disease and the radionuclides. A lot of them had other diseases, because if you get one disease, sometimes you’re getting several things. I learned that as well. A lot of these people are just lost and forgotten, and nobody cares, and nobody’s heard of Hanford.
This photo was originally published in the Spokesman Review in Spokane, Washington, under the headline “Fighting Back.” In the photo, Trisha is pictured with a photo of her father, a Hanford nuclear engineer who died from thyroid cancer. File accessed via trishapritikin.com in 2026.
Determined that these experiences should not disappear from public memory, Trisha documented the human consequences of the litigation in her 2020 book, The Hanford Plaintiffs: Voices from the Fight for Atomic Justice, published by the University Press of Kansas. The book combines oral histories from twenty-four plaintiffs with a historical account of the legal struggle, illuminating the personal costs of prolonged litigation and the barriers faced by people seeking redress for radiation-related harm.
Through her writing, research, public advocacy, and work to hold institutions accountable, Trisha continues to champion Hanford downwinders, children of Hanford workers, and others affected by airborne and Columbia River contamination:
I feel that infants and children exposed downwind of Hanford, who develop any of those diseases on the recognized lists, should also be eligible for compensation and healthcare. Think of the moral issues here. You have kids who not give consent to be exposed and were not in a contractual relation to work at Hanford, yet they get nothing. Versus workers who knew they were entering into some kind of a risky work—although they may not have known the full extent of the risk—can get compensation and healthcare. There’s something wrong with this picture.
It makes so much sense to me and many others that people who grew up downwind of Hanford who have any of the diseases on that recognized list should receive at least healthcare, and possibly some compensation for those diseases. That’s important to me, and it’s logical.
Trisha T. Pritikin’s work preserves the testimony of those who lived with the consequences of nuclear weapons production and advances a fundamental principle: the people who bear the human costs of government and industrial decisions deserve to be heard, remembered, and treated with justice.
It is worth noting that Hanford Nuclear Site remains one of the most contaminated nuclear sites in the United States. Cleanup remains a major environmental and public health challenge because some radioactive and chemical contaminants can remain dangerous for thousands of years.
Spent nuclear fuel stored underwater and uncapped in Hanford’s K‑East Basin
——————————-
The Hanford Plaintiffs: Voices from the Fight for Atomic Justice – Book by Trisha T. Pritikin
You can see Trisha’s Atomic Heritage Foundation interview here.