Contaminated Soil And Concrete Cleared From Hanford Site

Cleanup crews are close to completing a multi-year cleanup project at the Hanford Site near the bank of the Columbia River.  The focus of the work was removing waste and lessening the long term risk to the environment in and area the size of six football fields in the K Area.

The K Area was not only home to the East and West Nuclear Reactors, but also an underground bunker that was used as a storage facility for the oil needed to keep the reactors goings.  Some of that oil got into to the soil in the K Area, so this project was focused on the cleanup of that oil.

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Workers had a lot of digging to do for the cleanup to be successful.  The total area was 560 feet long, 600 feet wide, and roughly 60 feet deep.  That resulted in the removal of 300,000 tons of contaminated soil and 20,000 tons of concrete.

What Did They Do With What They Removed?

All of that was sent to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, which is a 107 acre landfill on site that handles low-level radioactive, hazardous, and mixed waste from the ongoing cleanup.

Manuel Lopez, Hanford Field Office engineer for the Project and Facilities Division, had this to say about the project as it is in it's final stages:

This project highlights our commitment to protecting the Columbia River and reducing risk across the site.  Removing this legacy waste allows us to move forward safely and efficiently on future cleanup work.

Central Plateau Cleanup Company (who has been working on cleanup at Hanford for the last 63 years) was the contractor leading the project.

That wasn't the only projected completed in the K Area.  Last week a 20 year-old office complex made up of 16 single wide trailers was demolished that served the work at the 100K Area.  It was one of the largest structures at the Hanford Site and had been in use since 2000.