Richland Operations Office
K Basins Closure (KBC) Project

Welcome

The K Basins Closure (KBC) Project was established in 2004, to remediate the two K Basins after they were emptied of approximately 2,300 tons (2,100 metric tons) of spent nuclear fuel.  The fuel was removed in the 46 months stretching from December 2000 to October 2004, by Hanford’s Spent Nuclear Fuel Project.
 
After the fuel was removed, the basins still contained up to 70 cubic yards (54 cubic meters) of sludge, 2.4 million gallons of water, and hundreds of tons of debris and fuel racks (solid waste).  Most of the sludge had formed in the KE Basin. Remediation of the contents of the basins, as well as the basin structures themselves, constitutes the mission of the KBC Project.

The K Basins are two indoor rectangular, concrete structures.  Each basin is 125 feet long, 67 feet wide, and 21 feet deep, and filled with about 1.2-million gallons of water.  They are located in the 100-K Area of DOE’s Hanford Site, about 35 miles north of Richland, Washington, and less than one-quarter mile from the Columbia River. 

Many years of storing the spent nuclear fuel underwater caused corrosion of the fuel, forming a thick sludge that remained in the basins. The radioactive sludge, most of which is located in the K East Basin, is an amalgam of fuel corrosion products, debris such as windblown sand and environmental particulates, metal rack and canister corrosion products, ion exchange resin beads, polychlorinated biphenyls, and/or fission products. Until the KBC Project's containerizing work, the sludge coated tools, walls, and floor areas under the water, and swirled throughout both basins clouding visibility when disturbed. 

The Project has now vacuumed and captured in tanks all of the bulk sludge in the KE Basin, and is capturing the sludge in the KW Basin. Some of the KE Basin sludge has been pumped into tanks in the KW Basin, so that aggressive cleanup of the KE Basin can proceed. The KBC Project has also removed over 300 tons of debris and old fuel racks from both basins (combined), and is still removing smaller amounts of debris.

During the fuel and sludge storage years radioactivity seeped into the concrete walls and floors of the K Basins.  While water fills the basins, it provides shielding from the radioactivity.  However, cleanup plans call for the basins to be emptied and demolished. Therefore, the project is making plans to decontaminate the concrete basins themselves, and the remaining tools and equipment to meet standards of environment and safety.

The Hanford KBC Project has six major objectives remaining:

• Containerize all sludge in the K Basins
• Treat the sludge for disposal
• Remove sufficient contaminated debris from the K Basins to access and pump sludge, and meet regulatory and safety standards for deactivating and removing the basins
• Decontaminate basin walls and floors
• Remove all contaminated water from the basins
• Demolish the basins

For questions or comments, please send a message to hanford_kbc@rl.gov.