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Hanford rail to get second life

11.09.2010

RICHLAND, Wash.—More than 30 miles of railroad track being removed from Hanford’s River Corridor is going to receive a second life.

A Washington Closure Hanford “materials for service” subcontract with Trinity Environmental and Deconstruction of Tacoma, Washington, allows the company to receive the rail in return for the service of removing the rail.

“We were fortunate to work out an arrangement to ship the track offsite for reuse,” said Brian Stubbs, manager of the project for Washington Closure. “Reuse is an excellent alternative to disposal in the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. It doesn’t make sense to take up valuable disposal space with material that can be reused.”

The project is part of a larger miscellaneous restoration effort to remove abandoned utilities, fencing and other debris along the Columbia River corridor.

The Hanford Site has more than 110 miles of railroad track, only a fraction of which is still in use. It was used during the Manhattan Project and during the Cold War years to transport equipment and materials. In all, 5,000 tons of track is being removed as part of the final cleanup in some areas of the Hanford Site.

The project features an innovative radiation survey cart developed by Eberline Services. Equipped with GPS and radiation monitoring equipment, the cart is used to survey for radioactive contamination along the 30 miles of rail before it is removed. “It proved to be a safer and more efficient way to meet the release criteria than traditional radiological survey methods,” said Stubbs.

Washington Closure manages the $2.4 billion River Corridor Closure Project for DOE’s Richland Operations Office on the 586-square-mile Hanford Site. It is the largest environmental cleanup closure project in the country.

Washington Closure is a limited liability company owned by URS, Bechtel and CH2M Hill. It is responsible for removing radioactive and hazardous wastes away from the Columbia River. The work involves demolishing 486 contaminated buildings, cleaning up 386 waste sites, placing two reactors and one nuclear facility in interim safe storage and managing the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.

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