$6.1M in Hanford work awarded

TerranearPMC has won more environmental cleanup work with the award of Washington Closure Hanford subcontracts worth $6.1 million.

Terranear, which has teamed with Envirocon, has received $5.5 million to clean up 11 waste sites near the D and DR reactors along the Columbia River at Hanford.

However, the subcontract likely will be expanded to add 20 more waste sites near the D, DR and H reactors.

The initial work includes tearing out pipelines and septic systems and removing contaminated soil at the sites. The pipelines were used for hexavalent chromium, a chemical added to water taken from the Columbia River to prevent corrosion when it was used to cool the reactors.

The only waste site known to be radioactively contaminated is the soil near a former gas recirculation and air handling facility that has been torn down.

However, as work continues on the other sites, more radioactive contamination could be discovered.

The D, DR and H reactors have been cocooned, having had their radioactive cores put into on-site storage to allow radiation to decay to more manageable levels over 75 years. The support buildings around the reactors also have been torn down.

Work is under way to dig up waste burial grounds near the reactors, where workers during World War II and the Cold War believed they were permanently disposing of waste. It's being dug up now to prevent contamination from the burial grounds from reaching the Columbia River.

The next step, which is one of the final steps, is to dig up the pipelines and septic systems once used for the reactor complexes.

Terranear, which qualifies as a small disadvantaged business by Small Business Administration standards, should have the initial 11 waste sites cleaned up by May 2011. The waste is expected to be hauled to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, a huge landfill in central Hanford for low-level radioactive and chemical waste.

The other waste sites near the adjacent D and DR Reactors and near the H Reactor should be cleaned up by the end of September 2013.

Terranear also has been awarded a subcontract for more than $600,000 to sample 40 sites along the Columbia River, including sites near the D, DR, K East and K West Reactors.

The sites have been identified as suspicious and Terranear will sample them to determine if they are contaminated with either radioactive or chemical waste that will need to be cleaned up.

The sampling could require soil to be collected from the ground surface or could require test pits or trenches to be dug, said Washington Closure spokesman Todd Nelson.

Terranear has been awarded more than $40 million in Washington Closure subcontracts, with some of that work completed. Projects have included work at the highly radioactive 618-10 Burial Ground, cleaning up the hazardous 618-7 Burial Ground, clearing the old firing range and demolishing buildings.

Terranear, working with Envirocon, has shown it can perform high hazard work at Hanford safely, within budget and ahead of schedule, said Amar Raval, Terranear president, in a statement. Terranear has offices across the nation, including near Hanford. Envirocon is based in Montana.