News Releases | ARRA

Local company receives $3.7 million in Recovery Act funds to provide Hanford utilities

07.07.2010

RICHLAND, Wash.—Washington Closure Hanford has awarded a subcontract worth nearly $3.7 million to White Shield/Apollo, a small, disadvantaged joint venture between White Shield Inc. of Pasco and Apollo Inc. of Kennewick.

The subcontract is to install water, electricity, roads, office trailers and waste container transfer areas at the 618-10 Burial Ground at Hanford. Funding for the work comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

White Shield/Apollo will begin work at the burial ground this fall and will complete the infrastructure work by February 2011.

“Due to the complexity of the waste site and its contents, the planned cleanup will take several years,” said John Darby, project manager for the work. “To safely clean up the site, utilities and other services, such as water lines for fire control and dust suppression, are required.”

Darby works for Washington Closure, which manages the $2.4 billion River Corridor Closure Project at the U.S. Department of Energy’s 586-square-mile Hanford Site in south central Washington state.

“Recovery Act funds are being used to support remediation at one of the highest hazard burial grounds at Hanford,” said Mark French, DOE’s Federal Project Director for River Corridor Closure. “The services being provided will allow our contractors to work safely and efficiently as they deal with waste generated from years of reactor fuels development and research performed in the 300 Area of the Hanford Site.”

The burial ground is one of the most difficult cleanup challenges undertaken by Washington Closure so far. It includes low- and high-activity radioactive waste from Hanford’s reactor fuel development and manufacturing facilities. The wastes were buried in 23 trenches and 94 vertical pipe units from March 1954 through September 1963. The vertical pipe units are five, 55-gallon drums welded end-to-end and buried vertically in the soil.

Available records indicate the buried wastes include radiologically contaminated laboratory instruments, bottles, boxes, filters, aluminum cuttings, metallurgical samples, electrical equipment, lighting fixtures, barrels, laboratory equipment and hoods, and high-dose-rate wastes in shielded drums.

The site is roughly six acres in size. It is located six miles north of the city of Richland and a few hundred yards from Hanford’s main highway.

Washington Closure Hanford is a limited liability company managed by URS, Bechtel and CH2M Hill. It manages the $2.4 billion River Corridor Closure Project for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office.

The company is responsible for demolishing 486 buildings, cleaning up 370 contaminated waste sites, placing two plutonium production reactors and one nuclear facility in interim safe storage, and managing the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility – an onsite, engineered landfill for radioactive and mixed wastes generated during Hanford cleanup. 

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For more information on Recovery Act projects at the Hanford Site, go towww.hanford.gov/recovery.