The Department of Energy is set to begin a $95M project to build an 11th disposal cell at Hanford nuclear site for cleanup. This 'super cell' will hold 2.8 million cu. yds. of waste, supporting ongoing cleanup projects until 2040. Landfill used for low-level radioactive waste disposal is nearing capacity, prompting construction of larger cell. Workers are from AIS Infrastructure, Envirotech, and Weaver Consultants Group.
Department of Energy photo
The Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, which is the central Hanford landfill, has accepted more than 19 million tons of contaminated waste.
The federal Department of Energy is about to start a three-year construction project vital to the environmental cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington, Tri-City Herald reported.
The lined landfill at the 580-sq.-mi. nuclear reservation is again nearing capacity after four expansions and more than 19 million tons of waste disposed of in it since its 1995 opening.
Subcontractors for the new super cell's excavation are AIS Infrastructure, Envirotech and Weaver Consultants Group, Tri-City Herald reported.
Workers are about to start building an 11th disposal cell. It is being called a "super cell" because it is twice the size of each of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility's first eight cells.
The project will cost $95 million. Completion is expected by the end of September 2028, according to Tri-City Herald.
"ERDF has been a cornerstone of our waste disposal strategy for nearly 30 years, and expansion of the facility is critical to provide for uninterrupted, efficient and safe disposal in support of our ongoing cleanup mission for years to come," said Brian Harkins, acting manager of DOE at Hanford.
The new cell will hold 2.8 million cu. yds. of waste. That's enough space to allow certain environmental cleanup projects to continue through 2040.
The landfill is used to dispose of low-level radioactive and hazardous chemical waste. That includes the debris from the demolition of more than 800 facilities and also from digging up contaminated soil and debris from 1,300 waste sites, Tri-City Herald reported.
Approximately 10,000 tons to 15,000 tons are disposed of in the landfill each month, but when the cleanup was focused on work along the Columbia River, that amount could be disposed of in a day.
The Hanford site adjacent to Richland was originally contaminated by the production of nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War, Tri-City Herald reported.
A separate lined landfill, the Integrated Disposal Facility, was built elsewhere in central Hanford for glassified low-activity waste retrieved from Hanford's underground waste storage tanks, then treated at the Hanford vitrification plant for disposal.
Other waste will be sent offsite for disposal, including grouted low-activity tank waste, glassified high-level waste and transuranic waste. At Hanford, that is typically debris contaminated with plutonium.
The new super cell's construction won't impact ongoing waste disposal activities at ERDF.
The 107-acre landfill features a liner system that collects rain, snow melt and the water used to suppress dust. That prevents contamination from being carried by water from the landfill through the soil to the groundwater far below ERDF, according to Tri-City Herald.
A secondary liner system provides for the early detection of leaks from the primary liner. Both will be in use until the landfill closes.
After the landfill is no longer used for environmental cleanup, a barrier will cover it and desert plants will grow on it, soaking up the precipitation that falls in a normal year at Hanford, according to Tri-City Herald.
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