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Demolition of first Hanford processing canyon begins (w/photo gallery) - Mid-Columbia News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
Work is under way at Hanford to prepare the first huge processing canyon in the Department of Energy's nationwide nuclear weapons complex for demolition.
DOE approved a plan for demolishing U Plant in central Hanford in 2005, but then decided to focus its budget on environmental cleanup closest to the Columbia River first.
But with $1.96 billion in federal economic stimulus money allocated to Hanford, DOE has been able to begin preparing U Plant to be torn down.
Seattle crowd opposes Hanford cleanup delays
A tentative agreement to stretch out the timetable to convert the Hanford nuclear reservation's worst radioactive wastes into more benign glass drew little support at a Seattle meeting last Thursday.
If adopted, the agreement would delay start-up of a massive waste-glassification complex from 2011 to 2019. And completion of the glassification would shift from 2028 to 2047.
The agreement -- actually a negotiated settlement to a state lawsuit against the federal Department of Energy -- also gives a federal judge the power to enforce the new schedule if the feds balk at it in the future.
Day honors Cold War Hanford workers - Mid-Columbia News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
Harold Copeland took an engineering job at the Hanford nuclear reservation in 1947, swayed by a recruiter's pitch that he would be paid a good wage and could live in a house with his wife in the government-owned town of Richland.
He took the job and the house rented for $38 a month, which also included power, water, grass seed and handymen to change the light bulbs.
Hanford waste import moratorium questioned - Mid-Columbia News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
Concerns were raised about whether the state can make the federal government stick to its moratorium on importing certain radioactive wastes to the Hanford nuclear reservation at a public hearing Thursday night in Richland.
About 40 people attended the hearing on a proposed settlement agreement reached by the state of Washington and the Department of Energy to resolve a lawsuit brought by the state against DOE almost a year ago. The state sued after it became clear DOE could not meet legal deadlines in the Tri-Party Agreement to empty leak-prone underground tanks of radioactive waste and treat the waste.
The proposed settlement agreement would extend deadlines to dates DOE and the state say are realistic. And in one concession for doing that, the state won a commitment from DOE not to import several types of waste to Hanford until the vitrification plant is fully operational to treat the waste. That's scheduled for 2022.
Hanford News: More Hanford workers could be compensated
Less than 10 percent of former Hanford construction workers who likely would qualify for compensation for illnesses have applied to a federal program, said a Building Trades National Medical Screening Program official.
Representatives of the program held a meeting in Pasco on Wednesday night to discuss the screening and a Department of Labor program that provides compensation for Hanford workers who developed illnesses because of exposure to radiation or hazardous chemicals at the nuclear reservation. Nearly 100 attended.
As many as 25,000 former Hanford building trades workers may have developed illnesses covered by the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, said Knut Ringen, principal investigator for the building trades screening program. But he estimated that less than 10 percent of those have applied.
Hanford News: Moratorium on shipping radioactive waste to Hanford broadened
The Department of Energy is adding another type of radioactive waste to those that won't be sent to Hanford until the vitrification plant is fully operational.
Tuesday, DOE prepared a statement saying that even though its agreement with the states of Washington and Oregon did not cover greater-than-class-C low level radioactive waste, "this waste will not be imported to Hanford for the duration of the moratorium that defers the importation of waste to Hanford."
Greater-than-class-C low, or GTCC, waste is more radioactive than the waste Hanford now is burying in its landfill for radioactive waste, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.
As part of a proposed settlement with the states over a lawsuit brought against DOE, DOE had agreed to recommend in a draft environmental study not to import certain kinds of waste to Hanford until the vit plant is operating to treat high level radioactive tank waste. That's expected to be about 2022. Federal law requires the environmental study before a final decision on the moratorium is made.
Special cohort needed for Hanford workers - Opinions | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
We're not nuclear scientists or radiation experts, but we're willing to accept the recommendation from those who are -- especially after years of study.
Congress should approve the special exposure cohort for Hanford workers currently being recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
A special cohort would make automatic $150,000 in compensation and extend medical coverage to potentially hundreds of sick Hanford workers who were employed for at least 250 days from Oct. 1, 1943, through June 30, 1972.
In the case of deceased workers, surviving family may be eligible for the payment.
The “Dirtiest Place on Earth” Still Has a Lot of Nuke Waste to Clean Up | 80beats | Discover Magazine
It’s one of the biggest cleanup jobs the United States has ever undertaken, and it’s a long way from being done. Near the Columbia River in Hanford, Washington, contractors are decontaminating a nuclear fuel processing site that has 177 underground tanks holding 53 million gallons of nuclear waste, some of which has already leaked into the soil and groundwater. And the cleanup crew has learned that the known hazards are just the beginning. [S]loppy work by the contractors running the site saw all kinds of chemical and radioactive waste indiscriminately buried in pits underground over the 40 years Hanford was operational, earning it the accolade of the dirtiest place on Earth. In 2004, clean-up work uncovered a battered, rusted, and broken old safe containing a glass jug inside which was 400 millilitres of plutonium [New Scientist].
Hanford News: Study recommends demolishing FFTF, banning waste imports
Ground work for significant Hanford cleanup is laid out for decades to come in a draft version of a massive new environmental study of Hanford released in the Tri-Cities on Monday.
Among decisions it recommends are entombing Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility, emptying 99 percent of waste from underground tanks, leaving the emptied tanks in the ground, and continuing to ban some, but not all, radioactive waste from being sent to Hanford.
The Draft Tank Closure and Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement is more than 6,000 pages and has been in the works since 2003. Topics it covers have been expanded several times in that time.
The draft study will be the basis for a final study and followed by decisions by the Department of Energy.
OPB News · Hanford's New Cleanup Schedule For Tank Waste Up For Public Comment
The U.S. Department of Energy is collecting comments over the next few weeks on its new timeline for cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
At meetings in Washington and Oregon federal officials will outline the new proposed schedule. It sets a timeline for cleaning up underground tanks of radioactive sludge and building a massive factory called the “vitrification” or “vit plant” to treat that waste.
Carrie Meyer is a spokeswoman for DOE. She says the original cleanup and construction schedule drafted in 1989 wasn't realistic.
'Hot' nuclear waste could still be shipped to Hanford under proposed settlement | Oregon Local News - - OregonLive.com
When Oregon and Washington's governors announced a settlement with the U.S. Department of Energy in August for cleanup of radioactive tank waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, they said it included a "moratorium" on shipping new radioactive waste to Hanford until a plant to treat the tank wastes was up and running.
But in fact a big chunk of radioactive waste -- including contaminated metal from decommissioned U.S. nuclear plants -- isn't included in that proposed moratorium, Oregon officials confirmed Friday.
Ken Niles, assistant director of the Oregon Department of Energy, said Oregon continues to oppose importing the waste, formally known as "Greater than Class C" or GTCC waste.
Board OKs expanded compensation for ill Hanford nuclear workers - Breaking News - Yahoo | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
A compensation program for ill nuclear workers won key approval Tuesday to offer automatic $150,000 payments to potentially hundreds more Hanford workers or their survivors.
An advisory committee to the federal government meeting in New York voted unanimously to further ease compensation requirements for Hanford workers who may have developed any of a wide range of cancers due to radiation exposure on the job. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, now is expected to recommend the eased rules, called a special exposure cohort, to Congress.
If Congress does not object, the special exposure cohort would be formed.
Under the special exposure cohort, automatic $150,000 compensation and medical coverage would be extended to any Hanford worker who was employed for at least 250 days from Oct. 1, 1943, through June 30, 1972. That's more inclusive than previous decisions to ease rules only for workers assigned to specific Hanford areas for certain of those years.
Officials explain proposed Hanford settlement - Tri-City Herald
Extending deadlines for cleaning up Hanford's worst waste by years or decades is not ideal, but officials who reached a proposed settlement agreement say meeting the proposed new deadlines is more realistic.\n\nA round of public hearings in Oregon and Washington starts this month on the proposed agreement, but already officials are answering questions like why these deadlines would be more enforceable than legal deadlines that already have been missed. And why leaving waste longer in leak-prone underground tanks may be a better option than building new storage tanks.\n\n"The bottom line is that while we don't like the dates, we don't believe it is technically possible to dramatically move them forward, at least right now," said Ken Niles, assistant director of the Oregon Department of Energy, in a written response to concerns posted in an online discussion.\n\nThe settlement agreement reached between Washington and DOE was announced in August during a visit by Energy Secretary Steven Chu to the Hanford nuclear reservation.
GAO: Evaluate leaving more waste in Hanford tanks -Tri-City Herald
Given the high cost to empty and treat Hanford's radioactive tank wastes, the government should consider leaving more waste in the underground tanks, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
The report also challenges the Department of Energy to find ways to reduce costs for retrieval and final disposal of high-level radioactive wastes, saying they could be more costly than justified by the reduction in risk.
The estimated price tag to empty Hanford's underground tanks of radioactive waste and treat it are rapidly escalating and could be from $86 billion to more than $100 billion -- rather than the $77 billion that DOE estimates, according to the report. The study was prepared at the request of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.
Cost escalation is the result of a range of issues, including the difficulties Hanford workers have had in emptying the leak-prone tanks of millions of gallons of waste, questions about how well vitrification plant technology will work and a decision not to send treated wastes to Yucca Mountain, Nev., for disposal, the report says.
Hanford 200 North Area Demolition
Workers use excavators with extended arm shears and dust suppression to demolish three buildings, including building 212-R, -N and -P, that once stored spent nuclear fuel from Hanford’s plutonium production reactors. The former nuclear facilities are north of the center of Hanford, the 200 North Area. The buildings date to as early as World War II.
Hanford finishes shipping plutonium, unirradiated fuel - Mid-Columbia News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
Hanford has completed shipping its leftover weapons-grade plutonium and unirradiated nuclear fuel to South Carolina, a major step toward reducing security requirements at the nuclear reservation.
About 2,300 containers of material were shipped, most of them coffee-can-sized canisters of plutonium that had been stored at the Plutonium Finishing Plant. Shipments of the canisters ended in April.
Since then, the Department of Energy has been shipping about a dozen packages of unirradiated fuel, with those shipments completed in September. DOE had set a goal to have the shipping done before the start of fiscal 2010, which began today.
"It is a major accomplishment with a lot of effort by many people here at Hanford, a lot of effort by transportation crews and by the people at the Savannah River Site," said Geoff Tyree, a DOE Hanford spokesman.
Hanford: US most contaminated nuclear site gets funding for environmental clean up
The Hanford nuclear site was established in 1943 in the town of Hanford, Washington along the Columbia River. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the nuclear bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan. The plant’s waste disposal procedures were woefully inadequate. To this day, millions of gallons of high-level radioactive waste remains at the site and comprises the largest Hanford decomission activities 1964-71environmental clean up in Uited States history since being decommissioned between 1964 and 1971.
On September 30, 2009: U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) a senior member of the Energy and Water Appropriations Committee, announced that the final version of a spending bill that funds Hanford cleanup will include more than $87 million more for cleanup than the President’s Fiscal Year 2010 budget request. Murray, who was part of the Conference Committee and Appropriations Subcommittee that crafted the final legislation, fought for the inclusion of the additional funding after the House version of the bill cut Hanford funding to $51.8 million below the President’s budget request. The additional funding secured by Murray will go primarily toward groundwater cleanup and K Basin sludge treatment and disposal.
Local News | Spending bill includes $2 billion for Hanford | Seattle Times Newspaper
The federal government would spend more than $2 billion in fiscal year 2010 to clean up the nation's most contaminated nuclear site under a new spending bill.
The federal government would spend more than $2 billion in fiscal year 2010 to clean up the nation's most contaminated nuclear site under a new spending bill.
That's in line with what the U.S. Department of Energy usually spends to rid the Hanford nuclear reservation of radioactive and toxic waste.
The budget for fiscal year 2009 was $2.067 billion. A spending bill expected to be voted on soon by Congress includes $2.096 billion, which is more than was requested by President Obama.
Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state says the additional money will go toward groundwater cleanup and treatment and disposal of radioactive sludge.
In addition, $2 billion in stimulus money is being spent at the 586-square-mile site.
Hanford nuclear reservation takes next step on waste cleanup | Oregon Environmental News - – OregonLive.com
Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation have removed a 1.2 million gallon basin that once held 1,100 tons of spent uranium fuel roads, the U.S. Department of Energy says, and are beginning to clean up contaminated soil underneath the basin.
Contractor CH2M Hill's Plateau Remediation Company started excavating the contaminated soil on Sunday, meeting a deadline under DOE's agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Washington.
Earlier this month, workers finished years of work removing the K East Basin that once stored highly radioactive materials underwater, one of the greatest hazards at the former plutonium production site.
The basin held spent nuclear fuel from Hanford's nine reactors beneath 20 feet of water for shielding. Soil underneath the concrete basin was contaminated by leaks in the 1970s and 1990s, DOE says.
Waste mixing being tested for Hanford vit plant - Mid-Columbia News | Tri-City Herald : Mid-Columbia news
Orange liquid swirled and pulsed in a clear acrylic tank just outside the Hanford nuclear reservation.
The iron oxide that gave the tank's contents its bright color was one of several materials in the tank being used to simulate the heavy particles in radioactive waste that tanks at the Hanford vitrification plant will need to keep mixed.
Once the vitrification plant begins operating to turn some of Hanford's worst radioactive waste into a solid glass form, some tanks will be in "black cells" that will be so radioactive after operations begin that humans cannot enter again.
That means the mixing system that's been developed with no moving parts and is being tested now must work nearly perfectly for 40 years without the help of human hands.
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