An Energy Department contractor was expected to begin a review Thursday that would pave the way for removing the last 14 vertical pipe units from the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., an agency official said Wednesday.
Most of the 90 pipes, which were filled with radioactive wastes in the 1950s and 60s, have been yanked out already and disposed of at the site’s Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility landfill. But around the Christmas holiday, contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation Co. could start excavating the remaining 14, Doug Shoop, manager of the DOE Richland Operations Office, told a citizens group Wednesday.
“It will not be long before we have all those vertical pipe units done,” Shoop said during a webcast presentation to the Hanford Advisory Board.
Pipe excavation began in 2015 under the previous central-plateau cleanup contractor, Washington Closure Hanford: a partnership that included AECOM, Bechtel National, and CH2M.
