RICHLAND, Wash. – When the Hanford Site moved to an essential mission-critical operations posture in late March to ensure the safety of the site and local communities, the number of employees that reported to work dropped to about 10 to 15 percent of the normal 11,000-person workforce. The site had been preparing for a significant reduction in activities and services for several weeks, and thousands of federal and contractor employees had already shifted to a telework status.
Approximately six months later, the site is in the second phase of remobilizing the onsite workforce. More people are working safely onsite than are teleworking, and employees continue to deliver safe progress while protecting the workforce and the local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shortly after the site began remobilizing in late May, Hanford’s liquid waste processing facilities marked 25 years of safely treating contaminated wastewater while stretching the storage capacity of the site’s underground double-shell tanks. Since 1995, the facilities have processed more than 330 million gallons of contaminated wastewater to remove radioactive and chemical waste, primarily from an industrial evaporator that boils liquid tank waste to evaporate water and increase storage space in the tanks system.
As work ramped up on the site, Hanford’s occupational medical services provider continued to adjust its services to help ensure the health and well-being of Hanford workers. Virtual options were set up for health education, work conditioning, the employee assistance program, and check-ins prior to returning to work. The medical services provider received a 100-percent patient satisfaction response in May, while maintaining an overall patient satisfaction level near that percentage this calendar year.
In June, Hanford officials reported that groundwater treatment systems were on track to meet EM’s goal of treating at least 2.2 billion gallons of contaminated groundwater this fiscal year. Hanford’s advanced pump-and-treat systems allow operations managers to safely monitor the facilities remotely from home, meeting social distancing requirements while ensuring the facilities continued to operate efficiently. Hanford announced earlier this month that the annual treatment goal was surpassed for the sixth year in a row.
That same month, workers finished startup testing at the Analytical Laboratory in Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), marking the first nuclear facility at the plant to reach that point prior to moving into the commissioning phase for operations. That laboratory is a critical part of the system that will be used to treat millions of gallons of waste from Hanford’s underground storage tanks through the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste approach. Moving these facilities from the construction to commissioning phase is one of EM’s priorities for 2020.
In July, workers removed obstructions from single-shell tanks as they prepared to retrieve radioactive and chemical waste from the site’s A Tank Farm. At the same time, offsite workers followed COVID-19 safety protocols while they built a full-scale mock-up to test operations to fill three aging underground disposal structures with engineered grout to stabilize the structures later this year.
Workers paved roads and parking lots at WTP, establishing the future operational area of the plant that will treat tank waste. Workers also began installing fencing, utilities, support structures, and other infrastructure for the nearby disposal facility that will receive canisters of vitrified low-activity tank waste. Vitrified waste is immobilized in glass.
In August, training kicked off for the final class of commissioning technicians who will prepare the massive treatment plant for 24/7 operations to vitrify millions of gallons of tank waste. Workers also finished successfully testing a pretreatment system that removes radioactive cesium and solids from tank waste to provide a feed of low-activity waste to the plant, and they started constructing a concrete pad next to Hanford tanks to hold the pretreatment system.
Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette viewed progress on that project and others that month.
“I’m pleased to see the tremendous work the team here at Hanford has done to protect its people, the communities, and the Columbia River,” Brouillette said. “We are now getting ready to move into the tank cleanup phase and address it in a safe, timely and cost-effective manner.”
Chemists also made their final move into the Analytical Laboratory, culminating two years of developing training and procedures and verifying laboratory equipment performance while working at a nearby community college.
Workers broke ground on a storage area that will hold dry casks of nearly 2,000 capsules of cesium and strontium that are now stored in an underwater basin, while other workers continued building a mock-up to safely train and test equipment that will be used to move the highly radioactive capsules into the casks.
In the closing weeks of fiscal 2020, Hanford enhanced safety for workers and reduced the risk posed by chemical vapors by installing a new exhauster ventilation system above waste tanks in the A Farm to draw air from the tanks and send filtered air through 50-foot stacks, well above workers. And water treatment plant staff received a distinguished Silver Certificate of Achievement from the Washington State Department of Health for five consecutive years of high performance on removing particles from water to help protect workers at the site.
Brian Vance, manager of the EM Richland Operations Office and EM Office of River Protection, encouraged site workers in a recent message.
“Please remember the lessons we have learned over the past few months: maintain social distancing, wear face coverings, wash your hands often, and stay home if you are ill,” said Vance. “I remain confident that, working together, we will move forward towards a prosperous future, continuing to provide safe, efficient and effective cleanup of the Hanford Site.”