Hanford Resumes Tank Waste Cleanup

HANFORD  ENVIRONMENT 

By Anna King

Richland, WA  June 10, 2008 9:28 a.m.

Nearly 200 underground tanks of radioactive waste sit idle on the Hanford Reservation in Eastern Washington. Following some big fines the cleanup work is scheduled to get back underway this month. Richland correspondent Anna King has more.

Last July a hundred gallons of highly radioactive waste spilled out onto the ground. The contractor responsible, CH2M Hill, was charged more than $800,000 by the federal Department of Energy.

The company was also fined $32,000 by the Environmental Protection Agency. For nearly a year workers have been mopping up the accident and the incident has been under investigation.

Now the workers will resume pumping highly radioactive sludge out of one of the unstable tanks and into a more secure tank for storage. But they won’t be working for CH2M Hill for much longer.

Management of the tank farms is going to a new contractor in July. It’s called Washington River Protection Solutions. It’s run by three multinational nuclear energy companies.

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© 2008 Northwest Public Radio