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Cleanup subcontract worth $9 million awarded to local small business

04.16.2008

RICHLAND, Wash.—Washington Closure Hanford has awarded a subcontract worth more than $9 million to Federal Engineers and Constructors of Richland to clean up burial grounds and waste sites near Hanford’s H Reactor.

The subcontract calls for FE&C to clean up 10 burial grounds and waste sites contaminated with various materials related to H Reactor operations totaling more than 276,000 tons. Washington Closure expects FE&C to finish mobilizing equipment and support facilities this summer and start cleanup soon afterward, which will fulfill a Tri- Party Agreement milestone to begin remedial actions at the site by October 31, 2008.

In addition to contaminated soil, the burial grounds are expected to yield reactor hardware, process equipment and waste, laboratory equipment and waste, metallic waste, miscellaneous construction and demolition debris– all radioactively contaminated – along with hazardous material, which may include lead, asbestos, mercury, PCBs and acids.

Some of the materials are anticipated to be found in drums and other containers. Project staff will identify any unexpected solids or liquids they encounter to ensure it is safely and properly packaged and transported for treatment, if necessary, and disposal. Most materials are expected to go to Hanford’s Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility for final disposal.

“As they excavate, workers will also be on the lookout for discolored soils, which could indicate contaminated soil that has been in contact with buried wastes,” said Mark Buckmaster, Washington Closure project manager for the H Area remediation effort. “Those wastes also will be characterized, excavated and transported for disposal.”

Most material is expected to be found in unlined disposal trenches which date back to construction and operation of H Reactor (1948-1965).

In addition to producing plutonium, H Reactor also was used to test new processes and equipment. Burial grounds here may yield materials not found at other cleanup sites.

As a result of past experience, Washington Closure has improved considerably the way it excavates waste sites to ensure any materials found can be handled safely by workers. Safety systems and procedures have been implemented to handle discovery of anomalies at burial grounds where little is known about actual contents.

“We have to plan for the unexpected, given the limited information we have regarding the contents of some of the waste sites and burial grounds,” Buckmaster said.

“Experience tells us we must expect to find things not on existing inventory logs,” said Buckmaster. “We may not know in advance what they are, but we assume the worst and have the emergency equipment and procedures in place to safely respond to unplanned finds and events,” he said.

Work on the site is expected to be completed by March 2011.

FE&C was one of 17 small businesses that were pre-qualified to bid on the work and one of four that actually submitted proposals as part of a competitive bidding process.

FE&C has completed work on several other burial grounds and waste sites that are part of the River Corridor Closure Project, managed by Washington Closure for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Richland Operations Office. Other work included remediation of the burial grounds at B/C and F areas, as well as cleanup of the 618-4 and 5 burial grounds about one mile north of the city of Richland.

In fiscal year 2007, Washington Closure awarded nearly 90 percent of its subcontracted work to small businesses, significantly more than the 65 percent required by its contract with DOE.