RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Richland Operations Office (RL) and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M) are in the final phases of preparing to remove highly radioactive sludge from the 100-K West Basin on the Hanford Site.
August 15, 2016
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Kurt McCracken, sludge treatment project engineer, prepares to test the equipment and tools to remove the basin’s sludge.
Workers at the Maintenance and Storage Facility prepare to test the equipment and tools to remove the basin’s sludge.
RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Richland Operations Office (RL) and contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M) are in the final phases of preparing to remove highly radioactive sludge from the 100-K West Basin on the Hanford Site.
Sludge is a silt-like substance made of tiny fuel corrosion particles and other metal fragments created through plutonium production; it’s stored just a few hundred yards from the Columbia River.
Workers at the Maintenance and Storage Facility tested the sludge removal equipment from April to July, determining that the equipment and hardware are capable of completing the sludge removal project. The system is known as the Engineered Container Retrieval & Transfer System (ECRTS).
“The removal and treatment of the sludge remains one of our most important projects and is significant in our efforts to protect the Columbia River,” said Mark French, RL’s federal project director for the river corridor division. “We’re very pleased with the results of the testing.”
Attention to detail and collaboration of knowledge has led to this great moment:
“Our team of engineers and other experts have been putting in great efforts to ensure the system worked as designed and we can finally declare a huge victory on this phase,” said Kurt McCracken, CH2M lead engineer with the sludge treatment project.
These tests led to actual operation of the system moving a sludge simulant from a replica container through a system and into the sludge transport and storage container. This successful evolution provides significant confidence that ECRTS is close to being ready for removing actual sludge from the basin.