TERRANEAR AWARDED HANFORD N REACTOR SUBCONTRACT

Washington Closure Hanford has awarded what it expects to be its final subcontract for the completion of its cleanup work at Hanford’s N Reactor. TerranearPMC has been given a subcontract worth $5.6 million to clean up the remaining waste sites near N Reactor. Already the 113 support buildings and other facilities for N Reactor have come down and the reactor has been cocooned. “Washington Closure has done a great job of removing the structures and highly contaminated facilities at the N Reactor area,” said Rob Cantwell, director of Washington Closure’s field remediation program. “Now we begin the final phase of cleaning up the remaining pipelines and soil contamination.” Terranear will pull out pipelines and dig up contaminated soil and then package material for shipment to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility in central Hanford. The other eight plutonium-production reactors at Hanford used coal for backup power. But N Reactor, the newest of the nine reactors, used gasoline, oil and diesel instead. “The majority of work remaining includes the removal of pipelines and the cleanup of petroleum that was spilled during reactor operations,” said Mark Buckmaster, Washington Closure project manager for field remediation at N Reactor. Other piping, including for steam and for sewers, also will be removed. Terranear is expected to complete work on the three square miles around N Reactor by December 2013. All that should remain is continuing cleanup of groundwater.