I was reading the book Aftermath: The Remnants of War: From Landmines to Chemical Warfare--The Devastating Effects of Modern Combat (good book, by the way) and it mentioned that the government had "proposed National Sacrifice Zones of the Nevada Test Site and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State, which because of their nuclear radioactivity are off limits for thousands of years".
This intrigued me as I am "in the biz" and I could not recall having heard of National Sacrifice Zones, much less them being declared in either Nevada or Hanford. I spent the better part of a couple of hours scouring Google and then the EPA and federal websites for any indication of an official proposal or mention of National Sacrifice Zones. All I found was environmental groups, citizens (probably quoting from environmental groups), and reporters discussing the possibility of National Sacrifice Zones. There is also a documentary of that name unrelated to Hanford or the Nevada Test Site.
It is true that the Nuclear Test Site (zoom out) in Nevada is off-limits forever, for all intents and is therefore a de facto National Sacrifice Zone, but it has not been declared such as near as I can tell. It is also true that Hanford will be a painstaking cleanup, most probably forever. But again, as near as I can tell, cleanup is still in progress at Hanford.
What I did find in my searching was a quote from Neal Stephenson's science fiction book Snowcrash (also a good book):
"Like all Sacrifice Zones, this one has a fence around it, with yellow metal signs wired to it every few yards:
SACRIFICE ZONE
WARNING. The National Parks Service has declared this area to be a National Sacrifice Zone.
The Sacrifice Zone Program was developed to manage parcels of land whose clean-up cost exceeds their total future economic value. And like all Sacrifice Zone fences, this one has holes in it and is partially torn down in places. Young men blasted out of their minds on natural and artificial male hormones must have some place to do their idiotic coming-of-age rituals."
So there you go.
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Dying Nuclear Plants Give Birth to New Problems
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/31/us/dying-nuclear-plants-give-birth-to-new-problems.html?pagewanted=all
" Engineers at the Energy Department have privately begun calling such contaminated sites ''national sacrifice zones.'' They grimly joke that some zones could turn out to be larger than many of the 39 national parks. But they also say that failing to address the issue could mean that contamination continues to spread through the environment. "
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