Demolition of the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant might stretch beyond a Sept. 30 regulatory deadline, the manager of the Energy Department’s Richland Operations Office told a citizens group Wednesday.
While there is a “high probability we can get it done by the end of this year,” the project might only be “near-done by the end of this year,” Doug Shoop said during a meeting of the agency-chartered Hanford Advisory Board in Richland, Wash.
Between harsh winter and a radioactive contamination incident in late January that has halted demolition, DOE and contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation Co. have lost more than a month of work days at the Plutonium Finishing Plant (PFP) since demolition began in November.
At a January meeting of the board, before the radiation incident, Shoop told members of the locally staffed group that demolition was running on time, despite the winter weather.
Then came the radiation contamination incident, which was detected at the end of the workday on Jan. 27. Of the demolition workers subsequently tested for exposure, some had contamination on their protective outerwear, but none had contamination on their skin or in their nasal passageways.
Demolition halted after the incident and still has not resumed, a DOE spokesman said Wednesday, more than 30 days after the event.
The PFP was once used to shape plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. The Department of Energy must tear down the plant to the concrete slab on which it was built by Sept. 30. The work was supposed to be finished by Sept. 30, 2016, but unexpected contamination, accidents on the job, and equipment difficulties prompted DOE to ask for a one-year extension, which the Washington state Ecology Department granted last summer.
Sept. 30 is the end of the U.S. government’s fiscal year.
