FLUOR HANFORD (FH) MAKES CLEANUP A REALITY IN NEARLY 11 YEARS AT HANFORD

Journal Article · Thu May 24 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · NUCLEAR FUTURES PUBLISHED IN UNITED KINGDOM

OSTI ID:908292

GERBER, M S

For nearly 11 years, Fluor Hanford has been busy cleaning up the legacy of nuclear weapons production at one of the Department of Energy's (DOE'S) major sites in the United States. As prime nuclear waste cleanup contractor at the vast Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state, Fluor Hanford has changed the face of cleanup. Fluor beginning on October 1, 1996, Hanford Site cleanup was primarily a ''paper exercise.'' The Tri-Party Agreement, officially called the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order - the edict governing cleanup among the DOE, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Washington state - was just seven years old. Milestones mandated in the agreement up until then had required mainly waste characterization, reporting, and planning, with actual waste remediation activities off in the future. Real work, accessing waste ''in the field'' - or more literally in huge underground tanks, decaying spent fuel POO{approx}{approx}S, groundwater, hundreds of contaminated facilities, solid waste burial grounds, and liquid waste disposal sites -began in earnest under Fluor Hanford. The fruits of labors initiated, completed and/or underway by Fluor Hanford can today be seen across the site. Spent nuclear fuel is buttoned up in secure, dry containers stored away from regional water resources, reactive plutonium scraps are packaged in approved containers, transuranic (TRU) solid waste is being retrieved from burial trenches and shipped offsite for permanent disposal, contaminated facilities are being demolished, contaminated groundwater is being pumped out of aquifers at record rates, and many other inventive solutions are being applied to Hanford's most intransigent nuclear wastes. (TRU) waste contains more than 100 nanocuries per gram, and contains isotopes higher than uranium on the Periodic Table of the Elements. (A nanocurie is one-billionth of a curie.) At the same time, Fluor Hanford has dramatically improved safety records, and cost effectively maintained and streamlined infrastructure and equipment that is impossibly old and in many cases ''extinct'' in terms of spare parts and vendor support. The story of Fluor's achievements at the Hanford Site - the oldest and most productive plutonium site in the world - is both inspiring and instructive.

• Research Organization: Hanford Site (HNF), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE - Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC06-96RL13200
• OSTI ID: 908292
• Report Number(s): HNF-33947 Rev 0; TRN: US0703657
• Journal Information: NUCLEAR FUTURES PUBLISHED IN UNITED KINGDOM, Journal Name: NUCLEAR FUTURES PUBLISHED IN UNITED KINGDOM
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
LIQUID WASTES
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SOLID WASTES
SPENT FUELS
US EPA
WATER RESOURCES
HANFORD RESERVATION
TANKS
DECONTAMINATION