The Hanford Cleanup is 'perhaps he most expensive, complex and risky environmental project in the United States.'
-Robert Alvarez, Policy Advisor to President Clinton
-New York Times, July 27, 2004

Cleanup Facts

It will take decades to remediate Hanford. Despite the daunting task, some significant cleanup milestones have been met:

• The high level nuclear waste in seven of the 149 single-shell tanks has been transferred to newer, double-shell tanks.
• A total of three million gallons of pumpable liquids have been removed from the single-shell tanks. This reduces the likelihood of tanks leaks.
• Construction of the massive Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), also called the vitrification plant, began in June 2002 and is now about 30% complete. The WTP facilities will be used to "vitrify" the high-level nuclear waste in the underground tanks. Vitrification will turn the waste into glass-like material. Although it will remain radioactive and toxic, immobilizing the waste will prevent it from getting into the environment. The USDOE has promised to ship the vitrified logs offsite to a deep geological repository.
• The K-Basin pools were built in the early 1950s to temporarily store spent nuclear fuel rods from the nation's war effort. They contained 80% of the USDOE's total inventory and were built just 400 yards from the Columbia River. The spent fuel rods and liquids have been removed from the K-Basins and placed in dry storage away from the river. USDOE is currently "vacumming" the remaining sludge for removal.
• Most of Hanford's plutonium, now stabilized and packaged, is ready fro shipment offsite.
• The contaminated groundwater beneath Hanford is one of the most critical and challenging problems. However, the USDOE has made some progress in treating a significant plume of chromium near the Columbia River, and has also installed a chemical barrier to help prevent radioactive strontium from reaching the river.

Cleanup Problems and Setbacks

Remediation of a site as badly contaminated as Hanford is unprecedented. Some setbacks are to be expected. However, delays can be dangerous and some at Hanford could have been avoided.

The Waste Treatment (vitrification) Plant is years behind schedule due to design problems, cost overruns, and other mismanagement. It was originally scheduled to begin operation in 2011. The latest projected startup date is 2019-- eight years behind schedule. The cost of construction is now estimated at $12.2 billion – nearly $8 billion more than the original contract. Successful onsite vitrification is essential to Hanford cleanup.

Delays in construction of the Waste Treament Plant present a challenging problem. As mentioned, the single-shell tanks are being drained into the newer, double-shell tanks. However, the double-shell tanks are expected to be full in 2008. Since the vitrification plant won't operate until at least 2019, this leaves an 11-year gap before the last of the single-shell tanks can be emptied.

The plutonium that has been packaged was supposed to leave Hanford by the end of 2006. As of this writing, there is still no schedule to ship it offsite. It costs about $85 million per year to store and guard the plutonium at Hanford.

The soil from surface to groundwater is called the vadose zone. At Hanford, vast areas of the vadose zone are saturated with dangerous contaminants that are working their way down to the groundwater. The technology to stop the spread of this soil contamination does not yet exist. Unless this movement can be stopped, the groundwater will remain unfit for human consumption for thousands of years.

Successes and Accomplishments

While there have been setbacks the US Department of Energy reports that they have taken important steps towards cleaning up contaminated site. Visit their factsheet for details on their accomplishments.

Tri-Party Agreement

The Tri-Party Agreement was an agreement between the US Department of Energy, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Washington State Department of Ecology to facilitate a cleanup of the Hanford site. As stated by USDOE, the Tri-Party Agreement 1) defines and ranks CERCLA and RCRA cleanup commitments, 2) establishes responsibilities, 3) provides a basis for budgeting, and 4) reflects a concerted goal of achieving full regulatory compliance and remediation, with enforceable milestones in an aggressive manner.

Click here to view the entire document, last updated in February 2009.

USDOE also operates an archive of newsletters to keep the public aware of the status of the cleanup- setbacks, advances, changes, etc. Track the cleanup over the past decade here.