The U.S. Energy Department is taking public comment through Nov. 6 on plans to continue remediation of the 100-BC Area of the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The 100-BC Area stretches about 4.5 square miles along the Columbia River corridor and was home to two now-deactivated nuclear reactors that produced plutonium from the 1940s through the 1960s. The old reactors left behind large amounts of liquid and solid waste containing radionuclides and chemicals that contaminated soil and groundwater, according to agency materials.
The Energy Department’s preferred alternative under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) would cost an estimated $23 million and focuses on additional excavation to remove a short length of pipeline that was previously grouted and left in place, an Energy Department spokesperson said Thursday.
The pipe was a sodium dichromate transfer line that connected the B and C Reactor Areas.
The preferred option also places limits on access, soil disturbance, and use of groundwater.
Most remediation of the site already occurred in prior work, the DOE spokesperson said. The Energy Department and its contractors have already torn down most of the buildings around 100-BC and remediated 82 contamination sites. Work crews dug up the contaminated material and moved it to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility on Hanford’s Central Plateau. Roughly 3 million tons of soil and debris have been removed from the site since 1995, according to DOE.
The 100-BC area includes pipelines, liquid waste disposal cribs and trenches, burial grounds, burn pits, and unplanned releases, most of which have been previously remediated , the DOE spokesperson said.
The alternatives consider varying levels of soil removal and groundwater remediation that range from monitored natural attenuation to pump-and-treat methods. The most expensive of the six options open to comment could cost an estimated $220 million.
The comment period began Monday. The Energy Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will use the input to draft a record of decision formalizing the cleanup approach. The ROD schedule will depend on the amount of time needed to address the comments. The actual cleanup would start soon after the ROD and notice of decision are issued, and be completed within five years.
There is no public hearing currently scheduled. Comments can be submitted via email to [email protected].
