Cleanup of 77 Hanford waste sites meets two TPA milestones
Hanford Site
Department of Energy contractor, Washington Closure Hanford, recently cleaned up 77 waste sites at Hanford to meet two Tri-Party Agreement milestones before the end of 2011.
The waste sites were located in the D and H Reactor Areas at Hanford along the Columbia River.
Crews began cleaning up those areas as far back as 2005, and the work to clean up the last waste sites under the two milestones was finished on December 5, 2011.
Workers removed 1.2 million tons of soil and debris containing heavy metals, hydrocarbons, gas, diesel, oil-based liquids, and radioactive constituents from the 77 waste sites.
The soil and debris was transported to Hanford’s landfill, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.
In addition to the 77 waste sites included in the two milestones, there are numerous waste sites remaining to be cleaned up in these two areas, while 45 other waste sites have already been remediated.
The waste sites were part of two Tri-Party Agreement Milestones (M-16-47 and M-16-51) which called for DOE to clean up the 50 D Area and 27 H Area waste sites by December 31, 2011.
The TPA agencies include DOE, Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.