Hanford Site

The Washington Department of Ecology has slated a Dec. 7 public meeting on proposed changes to the Dangerous Waste Permit being sought by contractor Bechtel National for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) being built at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash. The Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) and Bechtel are […]

Medical authorities have given the green light for three workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state to return to work after receiving precautionary medical checks for odors reported Tuesday inside the 271-AW instrument building. That’s according to Washington River Protection Solutions, a Hanford contractor responsible for radioactive and chemical waste stored in 177 underground […]

Waste appears to have been emptied to regulatory standards at the first Hanford tank farm, should tests show work has been adequate. Washington River Protection Solutions has used three technologies to their limit, to empty the 16th and final tank in the C Tank Farm. Regulatory requirements require that either three technologies be used to […]

The Department of Energy will release a draft request for proposals for the Hanford Occupational Medical Services Contract between Dec. 6 and Jan. 6, the agency announced Wednesday ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. The contract is a follow-on to the six-year contract awarded to HMP Corp., located near Hanford in Kennewick, Wash., in June […]

The Energy Department late Tuesday announced issuance of a draft request for proposals for a contract that could be worth up to $4 billion over 10 years to provide various support services to the Hanford nuclear cleanup site in Washington state. The incumbent contract is held by Mission Support Alliance, a partnership of Leidos, Jacobs […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Monday completed filling with grout the PUREX Plant tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed on May 9. The tunnel holds eight railcars loaded with highly radioactively contaminated equipment from the shuttered plutonium extraction plant. “Since a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed last […]

The Hanford Advisory Board is calling for the Department of Energy to ramp up to $4 billion in annual spending for cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state, despite DOE officials saying that will not happen. A combination of operating the Waste Treatment Plant starting within a half-decade while construction continues on parts of […]

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering relocating its program manager for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site away from the nearby city of Richland. Acting program manager Laura Buelow told the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB) last week that a decision on potentially basing the manager on the other side of Washington state in Seattle would be […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Nov. 10 indicated it is moving ahead with testing of technology for treating low-activity radioactive waste from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, while acknowledging funding challenges facing its medical isotope program. The Atlanta-based based nuclear services and waste management specialist offered the update in a 10-Q filing with the U.S. […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Monday completed filling with grout the PUREX Plant tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed on May 9. The tunnel holds eight railcars loaded with highly radioactively contaminated equipment from the shuttered plutonium extraction plant. “Since a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed last […]

No decisions were made about possible ways to speed up certain cleanup operations at the Hanford Site during a meeting Nov. 9 between top officials from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the Washington state Department of Ecology. Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) James Owendoff met with Ecology Department Director […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Nov. 10 indicated it is moving ahead with testing of technology for treating low-activity radioactive waste from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, while acknowledging funding challenges facing its medical isotope program. The Atlanta-based based nuclear services and waste management specialist offered the update in a 10-Q filing with the U.S. […]

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering relocating its program manager for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site away from the nearby city of Richland. Acting program manager Laura Buelow told the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB) last week that a decision on potentially basing the manager on the other side of Washington state in Seattle would be […]

CH2M shareholders are scheduled to vote Dec. 13 on the company’s proposed buyout by Jacobs Engineering, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The shareholder meeting will be held at company headquarters in Englewood, Colo., CH2M said in a Nov. 13 10-Q filing. Stockholder approval is one of the final […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Monday completed filling with grout the PUREX Plant tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed on May 9. The tunnel holds eight railcars loaded with highly radioactively contaminated equipment from the shuttered plutonium extraction plant. “Since a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed last […]

No decisions were made about possible ways to speed up certain cleanup operations at the Hanford Site during a meeting Thursday between top officials from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the Washington state Department of Ecology. Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) James Owendoff met with Ecology Department Director Maia […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Friday reported a $1.1 million drop in revenue for the third quarter of 2017, while its operating and net losses both snuck up by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Quarterly revenue fell on a year-over-year basis from $12.9 million in 2016 to $11.8 million this year, as revenue in Perma-Fix’s services […]

The Hanford Advisory Board is calling for the Department of Energy to ramp up to $4 billion in annual spending at the Hanford Site in Washington state, despite DOE officials saying that will not happen. A combination of operating the Waste Treatment Plant starting within five years from now while construction continues on parts of […]

The Department of Energy has picked Delmar Noyes as the assistant manager for Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant startup, commissioning, and integration, effective Nov. 12. He will support integration of the waste storage tank farm and the Waste Treatment Plant to assure close coordination during startup and commissioning of Hanford’s tank waste treatment facilities and […]

Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) James Owendoff was scheduled to meet with Washington state Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon on Thursday, at least in part to discuss ideas about speeding up progress on construction of the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site, a state official confirmed. The visit follows […]

A visual inspection of the Hanford Site’s oldest double-shell waste tank has found at least seven leaks from the inner shell. The Department of Energy confirmed in 2012 that Tank AY-102 had a slow leak from its inner shell into the space between its shells. No waste is believed to have breached the outer shell […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has for the first time shipped tank waste off-site for treatment and disposal. Three gallons of low-activity radioactive waste were sent in October to a nearby Perma-Fix Environmental Services facility to be grouted. It is then expected to be sent for disposal at the Waste Control Specialists […]

The Hanford Advisory Board will meet Wednesday and Thursday for the first time since June. The meeting, previously scheduled for September, was delayed until Department of Energy officials in Washington, D.C., approved letters of appointment and reappointment for about half of the board’s members. Without the approval, the board did not have a quorum to […]

The Department of Energy has picked Delmar Noyes as the assistant manager for Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant startup, commissioning, and integration, effective Nov. 12. He will support integration of the waste storage tank farm and the Waste Treatment Plant to assure close coordination during startup and commissioning of Hanford’s tank waste treatment facilities and […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has for the first time shipped tank waste off-site for treatment and disposal. Three gallons of low-activity radioactive waste were sent in October to a nearby Perm-Fix Environmental Services facility to be grouted. It is then expected to be sent for disposal at the Waste Control Specialists […]

The Washington River Protection Solutions’ (WRPS) project to empty a Hanford Site double-shell waste tank with an interior leak has been named the 2017 Project of the Year by the Project Management Institute. “Washington River Protection Solutions was able to establish and follow sound project management practices that allowed its challenging and potentially dangerous project […]

The Department of Energy and its Central Plateau cleanup contractor at the Hanford Site have appealed a fine and order by the Washington state Department of Ecology over an unidentified white powder found on the floor and equipment of the PUREX processing plant. The plutonium extraction plant was closed in the 1980s, with periodic walkthroughs […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has opened an investigation after being notified by the contractor for the Hanford Site’s waste tank farm that some liquid had been poured into the soil in central Hanford in August. The liquid was in four used containers that had sat out in the weather for a couple years […]

Recently obtained email messages indicate the Department of Justice might be investigating time-card issues involving the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) project at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The investigation follows two settlements in recent years for alleged time-card fraud at the Hanford waste tank farms. An email sent on July 27 […]

The Department of Energy and its Central Plateau cleanup contractor at the Hanford Site have appealed a fine and order by the Washington state Department of Ecology over an unidentified white powder found on the floor and equipment of the PUREX processing plant. The plutonium extraction plant was closed down in the 1980s, with periodic […]