New $389 million Hanford radioactive waste contract transition gets federal go-ahead

The transition to the new 222-S Laboratory contract at the Hanford nuclear reservation will begin Tuesday, Jan. 5, the Department of Energy announced Monday.

The transition period will last 100 days, then Hanford Laboratory Management and Integration will take over all work to operate and manage the laboratory complex at the center of the Hanford site.

In late September, DOE awarded the company a $389 million contract for up to seven years.

The current contractor employs about 73 workers. Typically new Hanford contractors hire most of the previous contractors workers and bring in new management.

The new contractor, which has offices in Richland, is owned by Navarro Research and Engineering of Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International of Gaithersburg, Md.

The new contractor will have the sole responsibility to operate, manage and maintain the 222-S Laboratory complex.

It provides analytical support for the storage and treatment of 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste stored in underground tanks at the site.

Navarro is the environmental characterization and remediation contractor for cleanup work in Nevada where nuclear weapons were tested between 1951 and 1992.

Advanced Technologies and Laboratories was the 222-S Laboratory contractor from 2005 to 2015.

The expiring contract is held by Wastren Advantage, also known as VNS Federal Services, a subsidiary of Veolia Nuclear Solutions. It employs about 65 workers, many of whom are expected to transfer to the new contractor.

Washington River Protection Solutions, the Hanford tank farm contractor, now acts as landlord of the lab and that will be turned over to the new contractor.

The 222-S Laboratory in the center of the site handles highly radioactive samples to conduct 15,000 to 25,000 radiochemistry and other analyses annually.

It has 11 hot cells, where workers operate handling equipment from outside the cells and look through thick, leaded glass to work with radioactive waste samples within the hot cell.

Information now is used to determine what wastes can be combined in Hanford’s underground storage tanks and to help plan how workers can best be protected while working at specific tanks.

In the future it will be used to support the Hanford vitrification plant, which could begin treating tank waste for disposal at the end of 2023.

The Hanford site in Eastern Washington was used from World War II through the Cold War to produce about two-thirds of the nation’s plutonium for its nuclear weapons program.