The Department of Energy tacked on a new 25 cubic-yard uranium cleanup to a list of remediation projects at the Hanford Site’s 300 Area, according to a notice Monday from DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Washington state.
The contaminated soil, a patch of ground measuring 15 feet by 15 feet and known as the 600-403 waste site, was discovered in March 2015 by a worker being trained to operate a mobile gamma spectrometer, according to an official document known as an Explanation of Significant Differences. The document is dated April 14, 2016, but was released publicly Monday. There is about enough contaminated dirt at the site to fill two dump trucks.
The 300 Area covers 40 square miles along the Columbia River in the southeast corner of the former plutonium production site. Among the facilities operated there were six experimental nuclear reactors, according to DOE. Area 600-403 has been included in the cleanup, even though it is outside the boundaries of the Area 300 industrial complex, DOE and its partner agencies said in the Explanation of Significant Differences.
Like the rest of the Hanford Central Plateau cleanup, DOE’s Richland Operations Office will manage remediation of area 600-403. The prime contractor at the site, on the job through Sept. 30, 2018, under a 10-year, $7 billion cleanup deal, is CH2M Plateau Remediation Co.