Cleanup has been completed on one of the most contaminated spots within the sprawling Hanford Site in southeast Washington state, the Energy Department announced Thursday.
Hanford contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation has finished the eight-year remediation project at the 618-10 Burial Ground and two nearby waste sites. In all, work crews extracted more than 512,000 tons of contaminated soil and waste. More than 2,200 drums of waste, assorted debris, and 94 vertical pipes had been buried more than 20 feet underground at the site.
The site is being filled in, and the waste relocated to Hanford’s Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.
The contaminated material, mostly from Hanford labs and fuel facilities, had been placed in the burial ground during the 1950s and 1960s. Documentation was spotty in those days and the types of waste buried there were initially unknown, DOE said in a news release.
The 618-10 Burial Ground project cost $280 million. The figure includes services provided by former Hanford River Corridor remediation contractor Washington Closure Hanford, which started the work in 2009.
The burial ground and adjoining waste sites are located about 6 miles north of Richland, Wash.
Infrastructure that was set up in connection with the cleanup work is now starting to be removed. This process will continue well into 2018. Vegetation will eventually be planted at the burial ground site from November 2018 through February 2019. The Tri-Party Agreement milestone to complete this work is Sept. 30, 2018. The agreement between DOE, the state, and the Environmental Protection Agency governs cleanup at the former plutonium production complex.
U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell (both D-Wash.), along with Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), issued a statement praising workers for completing the 618-10 Burial Ground project. The Washington delegation urged Energy Secretary Rick Perry and the Trump administration to provide adequate federal funding to a long list of sites awaiting cleanup at Hanford.
