Work to get weapons-grade plutonium off the Hanford site is running ahead of schedule, and all the weapons plutonium may be gone by early June, according to the Department of Energy.
More than half the plutonium already has been shipped off site.
With good weather, the work could finish even sooner than June, said Doug Shoop, deputy manager of the DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office. DOE had planned to have all the plutonium shipped to the Savannah River, S.C., nuclear site by the end of September 2009 when shipments started in fall 2007.
During the Cold War plutonium was produced at Hanford and made into metal buttons the size of hockey pucks at Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant to be shipped off site for conversion for weapons use.
But at the end of the Cold War, 2,300 canisters of plutonium were left. Each canister, the size of a large coffee can, can hold almost 10 pounds of plutonium, but their weights vary.
The plutonium has been stored in a vault at the Plutonium Finishing Plant under armed guard. But having weapons-grade material on site increases security costs.
The Governmental Accountability Office told Congress last year that if the canisters of plutonium remain at Hanford, security improvements through 2018 that were required after 9/11 terrorism attacks would cost $831 million.
The heavy security also has complicated plans to tear down buildings to slab on grade at the Plutonium Finishing Plant as part of cleanup of the Hanford nuclear reservation. Work slowed there in the two years before DOE made the decision in 2007 to consolidate the plutonium stored at Hanford and also at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico at DOE's Savannah River, S.C., site.
The Hanford shipments required about 1,000 shipping containers to be fabricated in addition to those DOE already had.
Getting those manufactured to the precise tolerances required by nuclear standards has been a challenge, Shoop said. Both vendors hired for the work had some quality problems that were caught by DOE, but now the biggest challenge remaining for the shipments is weather, Shoop said.
Work is under way to build containers for several packages of irradiated fuel from various sources, including Los Alamos, that also are stored at the Plutonium Finishing Plant and will be shipped to Savannah River. Those shipments should be completed by October, said Matt McCormick, DOE assistant manager for central Hanford.
That just leaves some irradiated fuel from the Fast Flux Test Facility and some other projects stored at the Plutonium Finishing Plant. That fuel will be moved elsewhere in central Hanford to clear the plant for further demolition.
DOE now is required by the Tri-Party Agreement to have the heavily contaminated Plutonium Finishing Plant demolished by 2016, and Shoop said DOE hopes to have it down sooner.
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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.
Hanford regulators will postpone some cleanup deadlines
Hanford regulators will postpone some cleanup deadlines
Hanford regulators have agreed to let some interim environmental cleanup deadlines slide at the nuclear reservation to focus on the highest priority work, given the realities of the federal budget.
The changes are expected to allow work to continue to demolish the Plutonium Finishing Plant, which the Department of Energy heard during public comments should be a priority.
The new plan also retains the focus on completing cleanup along the Columbia River by 2015 and cleaning up contaminated ground water beneath Hanford.
Temporary storage proposed for vit plant waste
Temporary storage proposed for vit plant waste
Hanford contractor officials are proposing a temporary storage system for Hanford's treated high-level radioactive waste that easily can be expanded, given uncertainties about the nation's plans for a national waste repository.
Washington River Protection Solutions formed an independent review team that is recommending a new Hanford building large enough to store as much high-level radioactive waste as the Hanford vitrification plant is expected to treat in a decade. But if needed, more vaults could be added.
The initial plans do not include a shipping facility. Given austere federal budget conditions, it makes sense to wait to add that when the nation is ready to ship the waste, said Tom Fletcher, Department of Energy acting assistant manager of the Hanford tank farms.
Hanford stimulus spending called a success
Hanford stimulus spending called a success
Not since environmental cleanup began at Hanford has the nuclear reservation had a period where it could point to as much work completed as in the last 30 months.
As the Department of Energy wraps up most spending of its $1.96 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money, Hanford regulators and the state of Oregon, which keeps a close eye on Hanford, are calling the program a success.
Within a day of receiving its first Recovery Act money in spring 2009, Department of Energy contractors were hiring to ramp up cleanup.
Radiological safety being improved at plutonium plant at Hanford
Radiological safety being improved at plutonium plant at Hanford
Improvements are being made to increase radiological safety at Hanford's Plutonium Finishing Plant since a critical report from the Department of Energy in July.
"The concern, and the number and significance of deficiencies identified in the report represents a significant adverse condition with respect to regulatory and contractual requirement compliance," DOE said in a letter to contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. in July.
In some cases, the problems extended beyond the plant to the contractor's program for all radiological work, the letter said. The letter and report recently were obtained by Hanford Challenge.
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