The Department of Energy is seeking comments on plans to use grout to shore up a trio of underground waste structures in danger of collapse at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
In a notice Tuesday, DOE said the comment period is between March 23 and April 24 on its plans for the facilities located within the footprint of the Plutonium Finishing Plant. A public hearing is set March 26 at 5:30 p.m. PT at the Courtyard Marriott on Columbia Point Drive in Richland, Wash.
The agency told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently that prompt action is needed at the 216-Z-2 Crib, the 216-Z-9 Crib, and the 241-Z-361 Settling Tank in order to prevent an incident akin to the May 2017 partial collapse of Tunnel 1 at Hanford’s Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant. All three underground structures are contaminated with plutonium and are in danger of failure.
While DOE is the lead agency, the EPA will determine if the project would complicate future remediation of those facilities.
While not an emergency, the Energy Department considers the stabilization a time-critical removal action that should not be put off long.
The 216-Z-2 Crib is basically a large wooden box that received about 10 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste, mostly from the Plutonium Finishing Plant, from 1949 through 1969. The Energy Department wants to stabilize it by pumping in about 140 cubic yards of grout this summer.
The 241-Z-361 Settling Tank is a 28-foot-long concrete structure with a steel liner that took liquid waste from both the PFP main processing facility and the Plutonium Reclamation Facility from 1949 through 1973. It would be stabilized with 400 cubic yards of grout.
Finally, the 216 Z-9 Crib is a 120-foot by 90-foot excavation with a concrete cover supported by columns. Between 1955 and 1962 it received 1 million gallons of processed waste from PFP. It will require 4,000 cubic yards of grout in a project planned for the fall and winter.
A Government Accountability Office report this month called upon DOE to do a better job monitoring aging facilities at Hanford in order to prevent a potential repeat of the PUREX tunnel incident.
All three facilities are contaminated with varying amounts of plutonium. Comments should be sent to [email protected].
