Hanford Site

The Department of Energy has officially acknowledged it will miss the Sept. 30 milestone set under the Tri-Party Agreement to have the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant torn down to slab on grade. The federal agency notified its regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology, on Sept. 1.  “Tremendous progress […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is establishing a new unit that will focus on the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, Roger Jarrell, senior adviser to the secretary of energy for environmental management, said Tuesday. Efforts are being made to streamline management decisions at EM, a roughly $6 billion-per-year office that oversees cleanup […]

The general manager of Waste Treatment Completion Co., the new subcontractor for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, is on medical leave. Acting general manager Mike Costas is filling in for general manager Scott Oxenford. Costas previously served as the manager of functions for the Waste Treatment Plant, which included […]

Officials at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state have been alerted to the recent discovery of some radioactive bird feces. The contaminated bird droppings were discovered during a routine radiation survey in Hanford’s waste tank farms, according to an Aug. 23 Energy Department Occurrence Reporting and Processing System report. The radioactivity reading on […]

The Department of Energy has officially acknowledged it will miss the Sept. 30 milestone set under the Tri-Party Agreement to have the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant torn down to slab on grade. The federal agency notified its regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology, on Friday.  “Tremendous progress has […]

Hanford Office of River Protection Manager Retiring Kevin Smith, the manager of the Department of Energy Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site in Washington state, plans to retire Sept. 30. He gave the word to Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Aug. 15 when the DOE chief visited Hanford. “The Department of Energy is […]

A panel of experts studying options for stabilizing the second radioactive waste storage tunnel at the Hanford Site’s PUREX Plant is scheduled to meet in teleconference for a second time today. The group’s first meeting, held a week earlier, was largely organizational, with no decisions made or a firm schedule set for future meetings. The […]

A postgraduate student intern and an Oak Ridge Associated Universities researcher in Tennessee are working to replicate an infamous 1976 radiation accident at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. The event exposed Harold McCluskey, a chemical worker who would become known as “The Atomic Man,” to the highest known level of the radioactive isotope […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology on Thursday issued a $16,000 penalty against the Department of Energy and one of its contractors for failing to identify white powder found during the last two annual inspections of the Hanford Site’s PUREX Plant. The state requires annual detailed inspections of the plant, outlining specific routes through the […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) might have to wait to get the funding boost being considered on Capitol Hill, assuming an anticipated short-term budget measure becomes reality in the next few weeks. Congress, returning to Washington on Tuesday after its August recess, has only a few weeks to pass some sort of […]

The bench trial in a lawsuit demanding better protection for Hanford Site workers has been delayed by about six weeks to allow the parties more time to pursue a settlement agreement. The trial now is set for July 25, 2018, in the Richland courthouse of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington. This is the fourth […]

The Sept. 6-7 meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board has been canceled after Department of Energy officials in Washington, D.C., did not approve membership applications and renewals for more than a third of the board positions. The meeting, to be held in Hood River, Ore., was the fourth and final meeting of the full board […]

Kevin Smith, the manager of the Department of Energy Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site in Washington state, plans to retire Sept. 30. He gave the word to Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Aug. 15 when the DOE chief visited Hanford. “The Department of Energy is grateful for Kevin’s service and wishes him […]

One of the primary cleanup contractors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has finished its assessment of the June spread of contamination during demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant. The evaluation by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation identified a need to augment the “work package hazard control set” and to improve measures […]

The Department of Energy is taking additional steps to stabilize two decades-old underground tunnels filled with radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, after one of them partially collapsed earlier this year. Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. announced Tuesday that it had selected a subcontractor to fill the damaged PUREX […]

HBO’s satirical “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday gave over much of its 30-minute broadcast time to the potential threat posed to the United States by its growing stockpile of nuclear waste. Using data from sources including the Nuclear Energy Institute and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, host John Oliver called attention to more than 71,000 tons of spent […]

A stop work order was issued at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant after workers learned that plutonium and americium were found in high-volume air samples collected at the Energy Department facility’s Rattlesnake Barricade. The samples were collected by the Washington state Department of Health on June 8, the day workers were ordered to take […]

Hanford Site workers have begun the push to empty most of the remaining waste in the final tank at the C Tank Farm, 19 years after preparations for waste retrieval at the farm began. If work goes as planned, Tank C-105 could be emptied to regulatory standards by the end of the year. C-105 is […]

The parties to a federal lawsuit on protection of Hanford Site workers from chemical vapors are requesting another trial delay while they pursue a settlement agreement. Plaintiffs and defendants asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice on Wednesday to postpone the trial from June 11, 2018, to July 25, 2018. It is the fourth trial delay […]

HBO’s satirical “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday gave over much of its 30-minute broadcast time to the potential threat posed to the United States by its growing stockpile of nuclear waste. Using data from sources including the Nuclear Energy Institute and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, host John Oliver called attention to more than 71,000 tons of spent […]

The Department of Energy has established its panel of experts to help guide planning to stabilize an underground tunnel filled with radioactive waste from the Hanford Site’s PUREX Plant. The eight-person group – consisting of DOE officials, representatives from Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M, U.S. academics, and a Canadian Nuclear Laboratories executive — will meet first […]

The Department of Energy on Wednesday formally started the bidding process for a new contract for disposal of low-level waste and mixed-low-level waste. Interested parties have until Sept. 22 to submit questions, to LLW_MLLWDisposal@emcbc.doe.gov. Bids are due by 3 p.m. Oct. 23 via FedConnect. “DOE intends, but is not required, to award one or more contracts […]

The partially collapsed waste storage tunnel at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state should be additionally stabilized by the end of the year, cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. said Tuesday. The company announced the award of a $2.8 million subcontract to Intermech Inc., of Richland, Wash., to fill PUREX Plant […]

HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday gave over much of its 30-minute broadcast time to the threat posed to the United States by its growing stockpile of nuclear waste. Using data from sources including the Nuclear Energy Institute and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, host John Oliver called attention to more than 71,000 tons of spent […]

One of the primary cleanup contractors at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state has finished its assessment of the June spread of contamination during demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant. The evaluation by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation identified a need to augment the “work package hazard control set” and to improve measures […]

The secondary bottom of a double-shell tank at the Hanford Site “has likely failed,” the Washington state Department of Ecology said last week in a letter to the Department of Energy. There is no sign, though, that any radioactive waste is leaking out of the tank into the environment, officials said Friday. The specific concern is that […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry made his first trip to the Hanford Site on Tuesday, touring facilities that will be used to treat radioactive waste left over from Cold War-era plutonium production. The former Texas governor walked through the Pretreatment Facility for the Waste Treatment Plant that Bechtel National is building to convert up to 56 […]

Plutonium and americium have been found in high-volume air samples collected June 8 by Washington state at the Hanford Site’s Rattlesnake Barricade. On June 8, Hanford personnel were ordered to take cover about 3 miles away at the Plutonium Finishing Plant after alarms for airborne contamination sounded during demolition of the plant’s Plutonium Reclamation Facility. […]

French waste management company Veolia plans to acquire Ohio-based Wastren Advantage in a move that would further boost the Paris-based company’s reach into the Energy Department’s nuclear cleanup market. “I can confirm we are in the process of being acquired by Veolia subject to the necessary approvals from DOE for our mitigated entity,” Wastren Chief […]

The Department of Energy plans by the end of August to release a draft request for proposals to replace the contract now held by Mission Support Alliance for services at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The new Hanford mission essential services contractor would provide site services, security and emergency operations, land management, information technology […]