The head of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Field Office told a federal advisory committee last week that the potential annexation of several hundred acres by the city of Richland, Wash., would not slow nuclear cleanup at the former plutonium production site.
“Absolutely not,” DOE Hanford Field Office Manager Ray Geimer said in response to a question during the Aug. 12 meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board. “Not in any way, shape, or form. Annexation does not change or affect ownership, or responsibility, or requirements to work, and nor does it change anything that we would intend to do about it at any of those sites out there.”
On Aug. 2, the Tri-City Herald reported that DOE is asking the city of Richland to annex hundreds of acres of land near the city’s northern border, including the highly-contaminated 324 Building.
Geimer noted that nuclear company General Matter has proposed using an old building in the 400 area. General Matter and DOE’s Office of Environmental Management agreed to team up in February for the company to use Hanford’s Fuels and Materials Examination Facility to support a nuclear fuel facility.
General Matter, a nuclear fuel startup company, also has plans to build a uranium enrichment facility at DOE’s Paducah Site in Kentucky.
“You know, it’s in the [Richland] city’s interest to start planning ahead to take over those areas, moving north of the city,” Geimer said.
Geimer continued, “And this is probably just the first of several annexations you’ll see going on into the future, as the city grows its revenue base, its tax base, and then at the same time provides the kind of you know fire and emergency services and other city services that are needed in order to support those kinds of industrial developments.”