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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hanford Celebrates First Nuclear Waste Tank Cleanup

Aviva L. Brandt Associated Press

Hanford officials on Friday celebrated that the first group of high-level nuclear waste tanks has been cleaned up enough that people no longer need protective clothing to enter the fenced area.

The underground tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation pose one of the most dangerous and complicated problems facing the U.S. Department of Energy as it cleans up radioactive waste left over from decades of weapon production.

The 177 buried tanks contain 240,000 metric tons of radioactive waste from plutonium processing. The contents of some of the tanks are not known and several tanks have had heat buildup, requiring complicated venting of flammable gases.

A barbed wire fence surrounds the area where six tanks are buried in TY Tank Farm, one of 12 tank farms at Hanford. The tanks, 75 feet in diameter, are buried 10 feet below the gravel-covered surface. Only devices to monitor the temperature, pressure and depth of the waste in the tanks are visible.

“This is truly a very exciting day in the cleanup of Hanford…a real major step forward,” said LaMar Trego, president of Westinghouse Hanford, a contractor that manages the 560-square-mile nuclear reservation for the Energy Department.

He later said more than 4 million square feet of surface contamination has been cleaned up at Hanford. That’s about the size of 70 football fields.

“This not only means progress, but it also frees up resources so we can get on with the actual disposal,” Trego said.

“If all the money is spent on the daily churn of maintenance, where do you get the money to dispose of it? That’s been the problem up until now - there wasn’t any left over after all the maintenance.”

Hanford officials estimate they would save $50 million a year when all 12 tank farms are at this stage, which is expected to take five years. The newer equipment is computerized and can be monitored from a central location, requiring fewer workers.

“And you don’t get real good productivity when your workers have to spend time getting dressed and undressed every time they need to leave the site. And it gets worse when it’s either really cold or really hot,” Trego said.

Mike Hay, an instrument technician, was working at the TX Tank Farm right next door. He stood behind a tall barbed-wire fence dressed in white coveralls, yellow rubber booties and florescent orange gloves.

“It’s very time consuming,” Hay said of the need for protective clothing. “The problem is if I forget something, I have to get all undressed to go out, and be surveyed by someone else to make sure I’m not contaminated. That takes 15 minutes. Then I have to get dressed again, which takes another five minutes.”