Hanford Site
2007 State of the Site

How You Can Become Involved

What is the State of Hanford Cleanup?

Each year the U.S. Department of Energy, Washington State Department of Ecology and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) agencies – host the Hanford State of the Site meetings in communities around the northwest.  The meetings offer an opportunity for the public to discuss a wide range of Hanford cleanup issues with top managers from the TPA agencies.  Topics range from cleanup priorities and needed funding, to proposed extended deadlines to construct and operate the Vitrification Plant and remove radioactive and hazardous waste from single-shell tanks.

The TPA agencies encourage interested members of the public to attend these meetings, ask questions, and share their vision, values and priorities for cleanup or simply listen and learn from the dialogue.

This year’s Hanford State of the Site meetings will include an open house prior to a town-hall style discussion between the public and TPA managers.  The agencies will have displays and other information on the latest cleanup challenges and progress at Hanford, and representatives from the agencies will be on hand to answer questions

A moderated town-hall style discussion will follow the open house.  The TPA agencies are interested in answering questions and hearing the public’s views on a range of Hanford cleanup issues and activities, including:

• Ensuring Worker safety and health;
• Sustaining the cleanup budget;
• Proposing new and revised TPA cleanup commitments to accelerate groundwater and soil cleanup, extend schedules to construct and operate the Vitrification Plant and remove waste from aging underground tanks, and develop a comprehensive scope, cost and schedule report;
• Shipping plutonium off the Hanford Site;
• Managing a stable, experienced workforce with more than 30 percent of the Hanford workforce approaching retirement age; and
• Maintaining cleanup momentum with the imminent award of three new cleanup contracts.

Although progress is being made at Hanford, cleanup will be decades long.  The public plays an important role in this process by helping to set cleanup priorities, focusing attention on the resources necessary to complete this important job, providing input on cleanup commitments in the TPA, and generally helping to shape the future state of Hanford.     

What is Hanford Cleanup?

The 586-square-mile Hanford Site is located along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington State. As a plutonium production complex with nine nuclear reactors and associated processing facilities, Hanford played a pivotal role in the nation's defense for more than 40 years, beginning in the 1940s with the Manhattan Project. Today, under the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy, Hanford is engaged in the world's largest environmental cleanup project, with a number of overlapping technical, political, regulatory, financial and cultural issues.
Physical challenges at the Hanford Site include more than 53 million gallons of radioactive and chemically hazardous waste in 177 underground storage tanks, 2,300 tons (2,100 metric tons) of spent nuclear fuel, 9 tons (8 metric tons) of plutonium in various forms, about 25 million cubic feet (750,000 cubic meters) of buried or stored solid waste, groundwater contaminated above drinking water standards and spread out over about 80 square miles (208 square kilometers), more than 1,700 waste sites, and about 500 contaminated facilities.

Who are the Tri-Party Agreement Agencies?

In May 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Washington State Department of Ecology signed a landmark agreement, commonly known as the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA). The TPA outlines legally enforceable milestones for Hanford cleanup over the next several decades. The DOE has overall responsibility for the cleanup of Hanford and maintains two federal offices at Hanford -- the Richland Operations Office and the Office of River Protection - each of which oversees separate contracts held by private companies.

The Richland Operations Office manages the infrastructure and all other cleanup activities at the site including groundwater remediation, cleanout and demolition of facilities, waste retrieval, packaging and disposal, and cocooning of former production reactors.  The Office of River Protection manages cleanup of 53 million gallons of tank waste and construction of the Vitrification Plant.  With a workforce of approximately 10,000 the two offices have a combined annual appropriation from Congress of about $1.8 billion dollars.
The Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulate U.S. Department of Energy’s activities. The regulatory agencies divide authority for different aspects of Hanford Site cleanup. 

Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program is responsible for oversight of the tank waste treatment and storage, waste management activities and implementation of the state’s cleanup regulations.  EPA has lead oversight for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 cleanup activities that include removal and transfer of spent nuclear fuel from corroding storage pools to safer storage areas and cleanup of contaminated soils and groundwater. These two regulatory agencies oversee other multiple cleanup activities as well.

2006 State of the Site