Staff Reports
WC Monitor
5/29/2015
Washington Closure Hanford has received a one-year extension to its contract for the River Corridor Cleanup project at Hanford, stretching it through September 2016, the Department of Energy announced this week. The final year of the extended contract would focus mostly on two challenging projects, cleanup of the trenches at the 618-10 Burial Ground and placing the 324 Building in maintenance status for future demolition, said Scott Sax, president of Washington Closure, in a message to employees. Washington Closure is working under a 10-year closure contract that was expected to end four months from now with the cleanup of the 220-square-mile Hanford river corridor completed. But budget shortfalls, including due to sequestration, and some contamination that was found to be more extensive or more hazardous than expected have kept the work from being done by September 2015. DOE also has added $400 million worth of work to the contract since it was awarded.
The work covered under the contract through this fiscal year comes to just over $2.7 billion, and the additional year will bring the contract budget to a total of almost $2.9 billion. “They’ve done exemplary work,” said Doug Shoop, DOE deputy site manager for the Richland Operations Office. “We would not have contemplated extending the contract if they had not done work in such a safe and efficient manner.” Work to date by Washington Closure has been $295 million under budget. However, DOE does not anticipate extending the contract past September 2016, Shoop said. That appears to be the best time to end the contract, he said.
Design to Address Spill Under 324 Building to be Completed
Washington Closure will continue to excavate trenches in the 618-10 Burial Ground under the extension. The burial ground also has vertically buried pipes that radioactive and hazardous chemical waste was dropped down. Washington Closure had driven over-casings into the ground around those pipes but work to remove the pipes would only start in the final year of the extended contract if money is available, Shoop said. A similar burial ground near the Columbia River, 618-11, also needs to be cleaned up, but that work is not planned to be done until the 618-10 Burial Ground is cleaned up.
The design for a system to remove the highly radioactive spill of cesium and strontium under the 324 Building just north of Richland would be completed under the contract extension. But cleanup of the spill would only start if DOE was confident money was available for an extended period of time, Shoop said. Washington Closure has prepared an options analysis paper for DOE to consider for a “safe, surveillance and maintenance mode” for the building, Sax told employees. Environmental cleanup work also remains to be done along the Columbia River near the K Reactors. But that work is assigned to CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. because it cannot be completed until sludge is removed from the K West Reactor Building, years after Washington Closure was expected to finish the rest of the cleanup along the river.
WCH to Continue to Operate ERDF During Extension
Washington Closure will continue to operate the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility in central Hanford for a final year. CH2M Hill is expected to take over operation of the landfill after September 2016, but the transition could start sooner. Washington Closure has been releasing workers as projects are completed, Sax said. It expects to reduce staff from just under 700 workers now to about 450 by the end of September 2015. The 160 employees at the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility eventually will transfer to the new landfill operator. “It is because of your hard work and excellent performance that we will continue our work in the river corridor,” Sax told employees. “Stay safe, finish strong and be proud of our work.”
