A 21-year-old who starts working at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state this year could have a 50-plus-year career and still retire before the former plutonium production facility is officially cleaned up.
DOE currently projects, with between 50% and 80% confidence, the Hanford Site will be deemed clean sometime between 2078 and 2091, according to a table in the DOE Office of Environmental Management budget justification for fiscal 2025.
Most of the nuclear sites managed by the $8-billion-plus DOE nuclear cleanup branch will be remediated in the 2040s, according to the summary. One of the 15, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico does not list a completion date. Its retirement will be affected by completion of cleanup at other sites and the capacity of the underground salt mine, which in theory might change from its current statutory maximum.
Some sites list a range, between two potential completion dates. Others list only a single year. These long-term projections could be altered by funding levels, new technology or discovery of previously undocumented contamination.
Near term: The Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) in New York state is basically cleaned up. The Moab Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project in Utah should be done by 2033.
In the 2030s: The Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Nevada National Security Site could all be remediated by 2035, according to the DOE table.
2040s: West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; Portsmouth Site in Ohio, Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee and the Energy Technology Engineering Center (Santa Susana Field Laboratory) in California could all be completed by 2047.
2050s and 2060s: Idaho National Laboratory and Savannah River Site in South Carolina should be remediated during the sixties.
2070: Paducah Site in Kentucky.
Late 21st century, Hanford.
