Energy Dept. Plans Further Cleanup of Nuclear Waste in Washington State

Nuclear "burial grounds" at a U.S. Dept. of Energy-owned wasteland in southeastern Washington state are slated to undergo additional environmental remediation this summer, part of a larger cleanup aimed at ultimately removing millions of tons of contaminated soil and materials.

The 586 square-mile area known as the Hanford Site operated for 50 years as a military plutonium-production facility, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s World War II development of one of the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

Washington Closure Hanford LLC (WHC), which DoE selected in 2005 as the prime contractor for the initiative, is vetting potential subcontractors to focus on the cleanup of specific radiological trenches and other nuclear hotspots at the sprawling Benton County complex. According to a contracting document that TPR located during a routine search of the FedBizOpps procurement database, this phase of the remediation effort will take between two and four years to complete at an additional cost of $10-$20 million.

The contracting document, dated Dec. 14, says that work for the latest procurement action involves "excavation and removal of radiologically and/or chemically contaminated soils and debris. Work may be performed in radiation areas (including High Radiation Areas and Airborne Radiation Areas)..."

This segment of the cleanup is just one part of a larger effort centering on a 210-mile stretch of land along the Colombia River corridor, portions of which in 2000 were designated as the Hanford Reach National Monument/Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge. According to WHC’s website, the cleanup "is scheduled to be completed in 2012 and cost $1.9 billion." During that time, WHC will "decontaminate and remove 510 facilities, close or remediate 486 waste sites, cocoon three reactors, and dispose of about four million tons of contaminated material."

To put the breadth of this endeavor in additional context, progress made -- and progress that needs to be made -- was spelled out in a 1,256-page declassified report released a year ago.

Public meetings and updates on the Hanford Site are regularly held in Richland, WA. For further information, a DoE "public involvement" site is available.