While Department of Energy contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Co. is doing a good job on hazardous nuclear remediation within Building 324 at the Hanford Site in Washington state, it needs to tackle some safety risks, according to the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments.
Generally, the DOE Office of Enterprise Assessments said in a review published last week, it wants increased rigor in recordkeeping and daily procedures and better tracking of unused or faulty equipment by the Amentum-led contractor.
“Until the concerns identified in this report are addressed or effective mitigations are put in place, 324 Building operations will be at an elevated level of risk,” according to the assessment review.
“A large number of pieces of equipment that had been permanently removed from service were not properly identified,” when Enterprise Assessment representatives visited in September and October. Some workers also were seen wearing their air sampling devices improperly, according to the report.
The feds and the contractor are planning “necessary building modifications to remove the highly contaminated soil to allow eventual demolition of the facility,” according to the report. Between 1966 and 1996 the building was the site of research on highly radioactive materials.
Although deactivation and decommissioning of the building, located within n Hanford Site’s 300 Area, started in 1999, demolition was put on hold in 2010. This occurred after work crews found “significant contamination under a portion of the building (B Cell), likely left from a previous spill of highly radioactive waste within the building,” according to the report.
The building is just a few hundred yards from the Columbia River. Because the building sits atop the contaminated soil, rainwater is not going to wash it toward the river, according to the contractor.
The omnibus budget approved for fiscal year 2023 provided $695 million for Central Plateau cleanup or $44 million more than what was budgeted by congress in fiscal 2022.
