Washington Closure Hanford on Monday transferred the last of its Hanford Site field cleanup work to CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. About 300 workers transferred with the projects to CH2M Hill or its subcontractors. Washington Closure, the Hanford River Corridor Closure prime contractor for 11 years, peaked at more than 1,200 workers in 2012 when it had American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. The end of its field work as of this week will drop its employee count to just under 100. That number is expected to fall further through the coming month to about 30 employees when its contract ends Sept. 30. The remaining 30 employees will continue to work for several months in a contract closeout office.
The 300 workers joining CH2M Hill or its subcontractors will continue to work on the last two field projects handed over by Washington Closure: completion of the high-hazard 618-10 Burial Ground remediation and operation of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF), the central Hanford lined landfill for mixed low-level radioactive waste. ERDF is available to all Hanford cleanup contractors.
Washington Closure’s original 10-year contract was extended for a year through fiscal 2016 to work mostly on two challenging projects: the 618-10 Burial Ground and the 324 Building, including the highly radioactive waste spill beneath it. The 324 Building and 21 employees assigned to the project were transferred to CH2M Hill in April. At the 618-10 Burial Ground, CH2M Hill still must remove 14 vertically buried pipes filled with waste from Hanford’s days as a plutonium production site for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. They were left for last because they were made of thick-walled steel. It also will finish loading out the waste from 80 vertical pipe units augured by Washington Closure. In addition, CH2M Hill will be responsible for digging up the last drums of waste buried in trenches close to vertical pipe units, which cannot be done until the last of the units are removed. It then will backfill and revegetate the burial ground.
