News Releases | Newsroom

$43 million subcontract awarded to demolish hot cells

04.08.2010

RICHLAND, Wash.—Washington Closure Hanford has awarded a subcontract worth up to $43.5 million to Northwest Demolition and Environmental to stabilize and remove highly radioactive hot cells in Hanford’s 324 Building.

“This subcontract is for the most difficult, complex and hazardous work we expect to face in regard to demolishing Hanford’s old nuclear facilities,” said Tom Kisenwether, who will help oversee the subcontractor’s work for Washington Closure. “It involves stabilizing, removing and disposing of five highly radioactive hot cells,” he said.

The hot cells are massive, steel-reinforced concrete structures. They contain multiple crawl spaces, manipulator ports, ductwork, utilities, stainless steel liners, tanks, pipes, cranes and numerous other systems and components cast into or attached to the facility. The 324 Building is a three story, steel frame, 102,000-square-footstructure that was built around the hot cells and physically is tied into them.

The cells were constructed so that Hanford employees could work with highly radioactive materials without being exposed to radiation. Not long after the cells and the building were constructed, routine personnel access into the cells was restricted and all work done remotely.

Hanford’s 324 Building was used to examine highly radioactive fuel from nuclear reactors and develop ways to chemically reprocess the fuel. In later years, the building was used to help develop high-level waste disposal methods, including vitrification, which is now the preferred method around the world for immobilizing high-level radioactive waste. Research work in the cells was completed and deactivation of the facilities began in 1987.

Northwest Demolition’s work entails stabilizing the hot cells by filling them with grout, or cement. They will cut the cement-filled cells into blocks ranging in size from 20 to nearly 1,000 tons. Then, they’ll package the blocks for transport and ship them to Hanford’s Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility for disposal.

In addition to the 324 Building, a number of other demolition projects in Hanford’s 300 Area will begin in the coming months, including demolition of the 309 Plutonium Recycle Test Reactor – the iconic domed reactor just north of the city of Richland – and the emission stack, along with the 337B Building, a high-bay that was used to test Fast Flux Test Facility components.

The demolitions will significantly change the skyline of the 300 Area, which once contained more than 300 buildings dedicated to laboratory research and reactor fuel development and manufacturing. The building demolitions also demonstrate the significant progress being made in cleaning up the Hanford River Corridor.

Northwest Demolition and Environmental is a joint venture between Northwest Demolition and Dismantling, Bluegrass Concrete Cutting, Bigge Crane and Rigging, MACTEC and DCI Engineering. They will start work immediately. Demolition of the hot cells will begin in April 2011 and will continue into 2013. Washington Closure has a milestone to complete removal of the entire 324 Building by October 2013.

Washington Closure manages the $2.4 billion River Corridor Closure Project for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office at the 586-square-mile Hanford Site in southcentral Washington state. The company is responsible for cleaning up 370 waste sites, demolishing 486 buildings, placing three nuclear facilities in interim safe storage and operating and expanding Hanford’s onsite Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.

Washington Closure Hanford is a limited liability company owned by URS, Bechtel and CH2M Hill.

# # #

High resolution photo available.  Photo filename: DSC_7683.jpg

Photo description: Hot cells, where highly radioactive work was performed, will be filled with cement, sawn apart and shipped to Hanford’s Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility for burial.