Hanford workers vacuum up sludge

RICHLAND — Workers at south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation have finished vacuuming radioactive sludge from one of two basins near the Columbia River.

The K East and K West basins were built in the 1950s to store spent nuclear fuel. Workers completed the removal of 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel from both basins in 2004 but found removal of radioactive sludge that was left on the basin floors more difficult.

The pools have been prone to leaks, making cleanup a priority.

"It's been a lot tougher going than anyone expected," said Colleen French, spokeswoman for the Energy Department. "So reaching this point is a major, major accomplishment."

The work completed by Fluor Hanford meets an Oct. 31 commitment to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, but that followed a string of missed deadlines.

Hanford cleanup is governed under the legally binding Tri-Party Agreement, which was signed by the state Ecology Department, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Until it was revised, the agreement had required the basin sludge work to be completed by March 1, 2005.

Workers spent years preparing to remove the spent nuclear fuel, but not enough time was devoted to planning for sludge removal, according to a 2005 audit by the DOE Office of Inspector General critical of management of the project.

Two changes turned the project around, said Chris Lucas, director of K East Closure for contractor Fluor Hanford.

At workers' urging, vacuuming the sludge was halted for about four months to remove fuel racks. Workers also helped to invent, design, build and test devices needed to retrieve the sludge, Lucas said.

Removing the sludge clears the way for removing contamination from the concrete walls and floors of the pool. Plans then call for draining the basin, tearing out the concrete and removing soil contaminated by leaks.

Cleanup costs are expected to total $50 billion to $60 billion.