Radioactive Storage Tanks

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, which sits adjacent to the Columbia River, is home to 53 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste from over three decades of plutonium production.

The chemical and radioactive waste is stored in 177 large underground tanks. ORP and its tank farms contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), are transferring this waste from 149 older single-shell tanks (SST) to 28 newer double-shell tanks (DST) to reduce  environmental risk. The SSTs have a single shell of carbon steel surrounded by reinforced concrete. The SSTs are the oldest waste storage tanks at Hanford and as many as 67 of these tanks have leaked up to one million gallons of waste into the soil and caused groundwater pollution.