PASCO -- The link between the Oscars and Hanford? Front-runners for going green.

The push to change an "inconvenient truth" is beginning right in our own backyard: using plutonium, nuclear waste, and spent fuel.
The waste Hanford cleaned up for the last half of a century drives our local economy.

But some argue, the focus isn't always in the right place.

"If you take the Hanford community and consider it a city, then for the last 30-40 years we've been more concerned with the garbage department," said nuclear engineer, Ralph Johnson.

As hanford leaders head out, it's time for a change of direction - rom waste to waste management. And the transition has already begun.

"All of a sudden, here's the opening for a grand, glorious enterprise," said Johnson.

The Global Nuclear Energy Project, GNEP, sits on the horizon. Hanford wouldn't just focus on clean-up, it would be a whole new set of "R's:" recycle, reactor, and research.

"It offers a long-term solution that's faced the nation as well as the world, which is what do we do with this high level of waste," said Johnson.

Forget the glass logs, local scientists said GNEP wouldn't just clear certain kinds of nuclear waste, it would help turn it into energy.
That would be music to Al Gore's ears.

"Waste goes to energy, waste goes to jobs, waste goes to progress and why anybody would argue that is beyond my comprehension," said Johnson.

The U.S. Department of Energy said they will hold a meeting on March 13 at the Red Lion in Pasco.
Share your vision with nuclear energy leaders and scientists about research testing solutions in our own back yard.