Hanford Cleanup

The 586-square-mile Hanford Site is located along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington State. A plutonium production complex with nine nuclear reactors and associated processing facilities, Hanford played a pivotal role in the nation's defense for more than 40 years, beginning in the 1940s with the Manhattan Project. Today, under the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy, Hanford is engaged in the world's largest environmental cleanup project, with a number of overlapping technical, political, regulatory, financial and cultural issues.

Richland Operations Office
Physical challenges at the Hanford Site include more than 53 million gallons of radioactive and chemically hazardous waste in 177 underground storage tanks, 2,300 tons (2,100 metric tons) of spent nuclear fuel, 9 tons (8 metric tons) of plutonium in various forms, about 25 million cubic feet (750,000 cubic meters) of buried or stored solid waste, and groundwater contaminated above drinking water standards, spread out over about 80 square miles (208 square kilometers), more than 1,700 waste sites, and about 500 contaminated facilities.

DOE has two federal offices at Hanford -- the Richland Operations Office (RL) and the Office of River Protection (ORP) -- each of which oversees separate contracts held by private companies. With a workforce of approximately 11,000 and an annual budget of about $1.8 billion dollars in fiscal year 2005, Hanford cleanup operations are expected to be complete by 2035.

Outside of the cleanup mission, DOE leases some Hanford land to the State of Washington, which in turn leases it out for two independent operations -- US Ecology operates burial grounds for commercial low-level waste, and Energy Northwest (a consortium of public utility companies) oversees the Northwest's only operating commercial nuclear power reactor, the Columbia Generating Station. Neither of these operations is associated with the federal cleanup work at Hanford.

Office of River Protection
What is the Office of River Protection and why was it created?

Key Information:

• As directed by Congress, the Office of River Protection was established in 1998 to manage the Department of Energy's largest, most complex environmental cleanup project - Hanford tank waste retrieval, treatment, and disposal.
• Sixty percent by volume of the nation's high-level radioactive waste is stored at Hanford in aging deteriorating tanks. If not cleaned up, this waste is a threat to the Columbia River and the Pacific Northwest.
• Creation of the Office was the next step in the evolution of tank waste cleanup.

The Office of River Protection was created to:

• Appoint one person in charge, who is accountable and responsible for the project's success.
• Establish an autonomous organization that reports directly to DOE Headquarters.
• Streamline the management structure and the decision making process.
• Avoid past problems encountered by the Department of Energy (cost overruns, delays) when undertaking major projects.

Key objectives of the Office of River Protection include:

• Complete clean up sooner
• Drive early progress on waste retrieval, treatment, and tank closure
• Improve environment for contractor performance
• Reach agreement with regulators and stakeholders for a better technical solution
• Manage risks and vulnerabilities
• Mitigate impacts of construction on the community
• Create opportunities for regional small business development