The primary DOE operations and activities on the Hanford Site in 1994 included Site management, waste management, environmental restoration, environmental corrective actions, and research and technology development. The majority of these activities were conducted under the Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Program.
The principal contractors and their respective responsibilities include:
Waste management activities involving single-shell and double-shell tanks currently include ensuring safe storage of wastes through surveillance and monitoring of the tanks, upgrading monitoring instrumentation, and imposing strict work controls during intrusive operations. Earlier, concerns had been raised about the potential for rapid exothermic reactions from ferrocyanide and/or organic fuels or hydrogen gas accumulation in the waste tanks. One safety issue stems from the fact that under conditions of sufficient chemical concentration, low moisture, and high temperature, ferrocyanide and/or organic materials combined with nitrates also present in the tanks could result in runaway chemical reactions that would release radioactive debris to the environment. The other issue is that in up to 25 tanks flammable hydrogen gases are generated in the waste and may be trapped, occasionally being released episodically. DOE and external oversight groups have concluded that there is no imminent danger to the public from either situation. The Tank Waste Remediation System Division has the responsibility to identify any hazards associated with the waste tanks and to implement the necessary actions to resolve or mitigate those hazards.
The aging, 40-year-old 100-K East and 100-K West Fuel Storage Basins are currently being used to store N Reactor irradiated fuel. In 1994, a strategy was implemented for near-term and interim fuel storage of the K Basin inventory. This strategy supports removal of the fuel and sludge from the K Basins before December 2002, as stipulated in the Tri-Party Agreement.
The PUREX Plant, located in the 200-East Area, formerly processed irradiated reactor fuel to extract plutonium and uranium. Plant operation was stopped in December 1988. From December 1989 through March 1990, the facility completed a stabilization run to process the fuel remaining in the plant. The PUREX Plant has not operated since the stabilization run. Solvent and nuclear materials remain, including nitric acid recovered from processing uranyl nitrate hexahydrate, spent fuel from Hanford production reactors, and organic solvents used in the PUREX process. After the stabilization run, the PUREX Plant began a transition to a "standby condition." In December 1992, DOE directed the facility to be deactivated and transitioned to "surveillance and maintenance" until final disposition.
The Uranium-TriOxide Plant, located in the 200-West Area, began preparations in 1992 to process the remaining liquid uranyl nitrate hexahydrate from the PUREX Plant. After completing an operational readiness review, the plant began operating in April 1993 and finished in June 1993. This stabilization campaign completed processing the last of the stored liquid that was converted into stable uranium trioxide. The final phase of the run produced almost 200 metric tons (180 tons) of uranium trioxide, which is stored in 45 steel storage containers at the plant. The stored product is now in its reusable powder form that DOE will make available for purchase by commercial power plants. The plant has been deactivated.
The Plutonium Finishing Plant, located in the 200-West Area, operated from 1951 until 1989 to produce plutonium metal and oxide for defense use and to recover plutonium from scrap materials. In 1993, the planned startup of a major process line, the Plutonium Reclamation Facility, was suspended pending completion of an environmental impact statement (EIS). A series of interim actions have been initiated to reduce safety risks in the facility while the EIS is prepared. As described in Section 2.3, sludge stabilization processing was initiated in November 1994, and 10-L container downloading and development testing will be initiated in early 1995.
While there are no production activities currently taking place at B Plant, several operating systems are required to accomplish the B Plant facility mission, which is to ensure safe storage and management of radiological inventories. Approximately 700 of 770 DOE-leased cesium capsules, manufactured during the late 1970s and early 1980s at the Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility adjacent to B Plant in the 200-East Area, have been safely returned and transferred to that facility. The capsules had been leased to commercial facilities in several states and were used for sterilizing medical products. DOE recalled all of the capsules as a precautionary measure after one leaked a very small amount of radioactive material at a Georgia facility in 1988. There will be about two shipments arriving monthly until approximately July 1995 when all the capsules will be returned. The capsules received to date have been inspected and are intact and free of leaks or deterioration. They are currently stored under 4 m (13 ft) of water in the Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility storage pools. There are 33 cesium capsules stored in the 324 and 327 Buildings in the 300 Area, some of which are damaged and will require re-encapsulation in the future.
The 242-A Evaporator in the 200-East Area is used to reduce the volume of liquid wastes removed from double-shell tanks. The process condensate is currently being stored in liquid effluent retention basins until the Liquid Effluent Treatment Facility is complete. The concentrated waste from the evaporator will be returned to the double-shell tanks. The Liquid Effluent Treatment Facility is being constructed in the 200-East Area to remove regulated chemical constituents from the 242-A Evaporator process condensate.
The T Plant facility is used for radiological decontamination of equipment and repackaging of radioactive wastes. Many future facility upgrades are planned so the plant may continue to support decontamination needs at the Hanford Site.
The Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Program conducts surveillance and maintenance of surplus facilities and performs cleanup and demolition of facilities. In 1994, approximately 170 facilities were included in the surveillance and maintenance program, and cleanup and demolition of 14 buildings was completed.
The 190-B Pumphouse complex, including the 190-B and 185-B Buildings, was demolished in 1994. Steel and other structural materials left from the demolition were reprocessed, and approximately 90% of the material was recycled. The D&D Program also completed the 105-B Reactor Museum Feasibility Study. The study showed that it would be feasible to turn the reactor into a museum for public education. Additionally, this would make about 240 ha (600 acres) of land near the 100-B/C Areas available for public use.
Other demolition included three support buildings in the 100-N Area, five buildings in the 100-D/DR Area, one building in the 100-F Area, three buildings in the 200-West Area associated with the former laundry facility, and a maintenance building in the 300 Area. The 107-C Retention Basins and four of the six 107-K Retention Basins, which received contaminated cooling water from the 100-C and 100-K reactors, were also dismantled and removed.
In other activities, the D&D Program initiated plutonium removal activities at the 232-Z facility and initiated the first phase of cleanout of the 233-S facility. Asbestos abatement was completed at 202-S (REDOX), 211-U, 271-U, and phase IIA of the 109-N facility. All of these facilities are in the 200-West Area except 109-N, which is in the 100-N Area.
The Environmental Restoration Remedial Action Program was established to clean up about 1,100 inactive
waste sites. In 1994, cleanup activities on the North Slope and the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve were
completed, making the land potentially available for other uses. In the 100 and 200 Areas, the program began
test operations of five ground-water treatment systems that treated over 
(3 million gal) of water,
and continued a soil vapor extraction system that removed about 41,000 kg (90,000 lb) of carbon tetrachloride
from the soil. An expedited response action was approved for the N Springs site and design and initial testing
were started to reduce the flow of strontium-contaminated ground water to the river. These actions are
described in more detail in Section 2.1, "Environmental Compliance and Cleanup".
DOE's Tank Waste Focus Area program is funding the development of a mobile robotic system called the Light Duty Utility Arm System. This new robotic arm technology will be used to support cleanup of Hanford's defense wastes and of other DOE sites such as the Waste Heel Removal Project at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and the Gunite and Associated Tanks Treatability Study at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At Hanford, the robotic arm will be used for surveillance, inspection, and retrieval applications in single-shell tanks. The robotic arm is capable of positioning a variety of scientific instruments, cameras, and small-scale retrieval devices within the tanks. These tools will help reveal the condition of the tank structures and also provide information about the nature of the waste materials inside. Hanford's Fuels and Materials Examination Facility in the 400 Area is being readied to test the robotic system before it is actually used in a single-shell tank. The Tank Waste Focus Area program is also supporting the Waste Dislodging and Conveyance Hydraulic Testbed. This is an integral part of a facility for testing in-tank hardware and integrated tank waste dislodging and conveyance systems with simulated wastes.
A remotely operated robotic system has been developed to vacuum sediment and debris from Hanford's 100-K Area spent nuclear fuel storage pools. The Remotely Operated Sediment Extraction Equipment is expected to be operational in the spring of 1995.
The Fast Flux Test Facility was put in standby in 1992 as a result of Congressional decisions to terminate the country's breeder reactor program. It remained in standby during most of 1993, pending Congressional authorization to fund future operations and determination of a new mission, as directed by DOE. In December 1993, DOE announced that a mission had not been identified that could justify continuing reactor operation. The Secretary of Energy ordered a phased process to place the Fast Flux Test Facility into a safe shutdown condition. It will take about 5 years to complete the shutdown process.
In 1994, the Environmental Restoration Program completed the construction of a prototype long-term surface barrier (prototype Hanford barrier) in the 200-East Area. The barrier, constructed of natural materials, will be an important tool in long-term isolation of waste sites at Hanford. Special instruments to measure the barrier's effectiveness in preventing rainwater from filtering through it were constructed at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
During 1994, the Environmental Restoration Program completed the first of two horizontal boreholes. This first borehole was used to insert conductive fluid used to melt the soil under the in situ vitrification test located west of the 300 Area. The bore was drilled vertically for about 15 feet and then turned and bored horizontally for about 40 feet. Horizontal boreholes are expected to allow sampling and determining of subsurface contamination under substantially contaminated structures at a reduced cost and with reduced worker radiation exposure.
Figure 1.2.1
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