Hanford workers have completed removing fuel and fuel scraps from the K West Basin, the Department of Energy notified the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board this week.
DOE had committed to the board to have the fuel removed by the end of September and met that deadline, DOE said.
The last of the radioactive fuel found in the K West Basins was loaded into canister overpacks, dried at the Cold Drying and Vacuuming Facility and transferred to the Canister Storage Building where other K Basin fuel is being stored.
If more fuel or fuel scrap are uncovered during the removal of debris in the K West Basin, the same process could be used until late 2010, DOE said.
In addition, it could use the dry storage containers that Washington Closure Hanford has developed for fuel and fuel scraps dug up in old burial grounds near the Columbia River.
K West Basin was used to cool fuel irradiated in the K West Basin and also to store irradiated fuel after the end of the Cold War. It's now being used to store radioactive sludge in underwater containers.
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Hanford finishing plant demolition under way
Hanford finishing plant demolition under way
Work has begun at Hanford to tear down what once was one of the nation's most secure complexes.
The Plutonium Finishing Plant's vault complex, which once stored plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program, is coming down.
About two-thirds of the nation's plutonium was produced at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, where liquid plutonium that had been processed from fuel irradiated at Hanford reactors was formed into metal buttons the size of hockey pucks.
DOE meets cleanup deadlines for 77 sites
DOE meets cleanup deadlines for 77 sites
The Department of Energy has met legal deadlines to have 77 Hanford waste sites along the Columbia River cleaned up, it announced Wednesday.
The waste sites were near the D and H plutonium-production reactors near the horn of the Columbia River as it cuts through the Hanford nuclear reservation.
DOE had two Tri-Party Agreement deadlines to get the waste sites cleaned up by the end of 2011. Previously, 45 waste sites in the two areas had been cleaned up.
DOE meets cleanup deadlines for 77 Hanford sites
DOE meets cleanup deadlines for 77 Hanford sites
The Department of Energy has met legal deadlines to have 77 Hanford waste
sites along the Columbia River cleaned up, it announced Wednesday.
The waste sites were near the D and H plutonium-production reactors near the horn of the Columbia River as it cuts through the Hanford nuclear reservation.
DOE had two Tri-Party Agreement deadlines to get the waste sites cleaned up by the end of 2011. Previously, 45 waste sites in the two areas had been cleaned up.
Support buildings coming down at Hanford's FFTF
Support buildings coming down at Hanford's FFTF
Work is under way to tear down some of the buildings that once supported work at Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility.
No decision has been made about the fate of the research reactor, but work is under way to tear down 14 buildings outside the secure area immediately surrounding the reactor. They include warehouses, a large office complex and security buildings that date from the mid-1970s.
In addition, an older office building that looks similar to the 1940s structures on the site will be demolished. It may have been moved to its present location to be used as an early administration building.
Research reactors in Hanford 300 Area set to go
Research reactors in Hanford 300 Area set to go
Work is ready to begin to remove two research reactors from the Hanford 300 Area just north of Richland.
A $19 million subcontract has been awarded by Washington River Protection Solutions to Phoenix Enterprises NW of Richland to remove the reactors and a vault with two tanks used for hazardous liquid research wastes.
"This contract covers the last of the nastiest facilities in the 300 Area," said Tom Kisenwether, Washington Closure subcontract manager for the area, in a statement.
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