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Hanford Information Related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Recovery Hanford FAQS
Frequently Asked Questions
We encourage you to check the Frequently Asked Questions below to see if your question has already been answered.
Work to be Accomplished
Q. What are the overall goals of spending Recovery Act funding at Hanford?
A. Saving/creating jobs, reducing the footprint of active cleanup on the Hanford Site, and reducing lifecycle costs of cleanup.
Q. What does footprint reduction mean?
A. The Hanford Site covers 586 square miles. As cleanup projects are completed in geographic areas, the total area requiring cleanup will shrink.
Q. What does life-cycle cost reduction mean?
A. As cleanup projects are completed and the total area requiring cleanup shrinks, costs for minimum safe operations decrease. Nuclear facilities require maintenance and surveillance to ensure radioactive materials are safely contained. Costs for services and infrastructure, such as utilities, needed to support these types of operations add up and increase over time. Demolishing facilities instead of maintaining them over a long period of time avoids these continuing "mortgage" costs. Also, costs of materials and labor go up over time. By getting more cleanup work done in the next 2½ years, DOE is avoiding some of the overall costs of doing that cleanup work in the future.
Q. Has work begun on Recovery Act-funded projects at Hanford?
A. Yes. Work is underway on several projects, and more information is available by clicking on the interactive map and the green Recovery Photo Gallery button near the top of this web page.
Q. What types of projects or programs will the Recovery Act fund at Hanford?
A. DOE identified projects that meet the overall goals of spending recovery funding: creating/saving jobs, reducing the footprint of active site cleanup, and reducing lifecycle costs. The projects also support priorities in Hanford cleanup identified since the 1990s by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington State Department of Ecology, Tribal Nations, and Hanford stakeholders. Priorities identified include completing cleanup along the Columbia River, containing and treating contaminated groundwater, shrinking the active area of cleanup to the center of the Hanford Site, and completing key activities in the Central Plateau. The projects are listed in a fact sheet posted near the top of this web page.
Q. Were there any other criteria for selecting projects for funding?
A. Yes. DOE selected projects that are already covered under existing prime contracts, so that hiring and work could begin quickly. DOE also selected projects on which its contractors have a proven track record of performance. Another consideration is that projects have regulatory documentation in place or documentation can be put in place in time for work to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2011 (Sept. 30, 2011).
Q. Is this just more of the same type of cleanup, or will new types of cleanup work be done using recovery funding?
A. In general, we'll be doing more cleanup work sooner.
Q. Where can I find information about ARRA-funded work that will be done at Hanford or at other DOE cleanup sites?
A. Updated information on Hanford projects funded by the Recovery Act will be posted periodically on this website. The Department of Energy is posting information on its Recovery Act web page, as well as on its Recovery Act Clearinghouse website. The DOE Environmental Management Division is posting information on its Recovery Act web page.
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Employment Opportunities
Q. How do I apply for work or contact companies to ask about doing business at Hanford?
A. Visit the websites of DOE contractors. They're listed on this web page: http://www.hanford.gov/?page=85&parent=78 . You may also contact companies that are receiving Recovery Act funding via the web links below. Those websites also list teaming subcontractors who also may be hiring.
Q. Have companies started hiring people to do work funded by the Recovery Act?
A. Yes. Work is underway and contractors began hiring and training new employees in April 2009.
Q. Are there enough people in the local area to hire for the jobs that you will need to fill? If not, where will they come from?
A. The contractors have recruiting programs in place to find local residents and expertise from across the country and will also utilize corporate offices and company divisions doing work at other sites in the DOE complex. Prime contractors are also working with preselected subcontractors and their resources to hire people.
Q. What type of jobs will be created? Will they be mostly union/labor jobs or mostly professional/technical jobs, or what portion of each?
A. Much of the work funded by the Recovery Act will be done by union employees, and many professional employees will be hired to prepare for and complete projects.
- Contractor Washington Closure anticipates hires will be mostly union employees - direct hires and through subcontractors - and will comprise D&D (Deactivation & Decommissioning) workers, Teamsters, radiation technicians, as well as the managerial staff to supervise the workforce. The company will also hire a small number of support staff, such as safety, accounting, engineering, environmental, project controls, HR, procurement, etc.
- Much of the work DOE has directed contractor CH2M HILL to do is D&D work (primarily cleaning out and tearing down buildings). This will require additional operators, D&D workers, Teamsters, other specialized craft, radiation and industrial hygiene technicians, supervisors, engineers, as well as support staff, including safety, accounting, engineering, environmental, project controls, Human Resources, and procurement personnel.
Q. How much hiring will be done by the prime contractors, and how much will be done through subcontracting?
A. All activities planned are within the scope of DOE prime contractors: CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company, Washington Closure Hanford, and Washington River Protection Solutions. DOE anticipates that these companies will accomplish much of the work through subcontracting.
- Much of contractor Washington Closure Hanford's field work - waste site cleanup and building demolitions - is done through subcontractors. The company will continue to do that and believes there are adequate resources out there to meet the need. However, the company will be stepping up its outreach activities to potential subcontractors, especially small businesses, to help put additional people to work.
- Contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company will utilize subcontractors for the majority of the hiring (with the exception of union employees represented by the collective bargaining agreement). The company's preselected subcontractors are prepared to support the additional workforce and will also utilize local small businesses.
Q. How much of the allocation for Hanford is going to go for new jobs, and how much is going to be spent on administrative costs?
A. By "administrative," we will assume the question is referring to oversight. According to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, up to half of one percent (0.5 percent) of each amount appropriated may be used for the expenses of management and oversight of the programs and activities funded by the appropriation.
Q. When Recovery Act funding runs out in October 2011, will there be layoffs?
A. We're sensitive to the situation and will communicate openly about where we stand at any given time. We hope to minimize the need for a significant post-2011 reduction in our prime contractor workforce by sequencing the work in a way that makes sense, and by using subcontracts for some short-term projects.
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Business Opportunities
Q. Will new major contracts need to be awarded at Hanford to accomplish the additional work?
A. No. Activities planned are within the scope of the current contracts of CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company, Washington Closure Hanford, and Washington River Protection Solutions. DOE has stringent requirements in each contract that require the companies to subcontract out a certain percentage of the work (by dollar value), as well as subcontract out a certain percentage of the work to small businesses, and these requirements will apply to Recovery-Act-funded work as well.
Q. How do I get in touch with the companies that will be doing the work using recovery funding?
A. To learn more about the contractors who are receiving Recovery Act funding, including job openings and subcontracting opportunities, visit the following company websites.
- CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company: This contractor is responsible primarily for cleaning up groundwater, demolishing facilities in the 100 K Area and Hanford's Central Plateau, and managing solid waste.
- Washington Closure Hanford: This contractor is responsibly primarily for remediating waste sites and demolishing buildings in Hanford's River Corridor, as well as placing deactivated plutonium production reactors into interim safe storage. Another major responsibility is operating the site's Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.
- Washington River Protection Solutions: This contractor is responsible for Hanford's 177 large underground waste tanks, including the safe retrieval of 53 million gallons of waste and building infrastructure needed to feed waste to the Waste Treatment Plant.
Q. When will contractors start issuing subcontracts for the additional work?
A. Contractors have begun issuing additional subcontracts and requests for proposals, as well as adding additional work scope to existing subcontracts. Washington Closure Hanford has a 90-day forecast of upcoming procurements listed on its website (www.washingtonclosure.com) and will add new projects as they're ready. Companies can visit the site and pre-qualify to ensure they receive copies of requests for proposals as they are issued. CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company has listed its preselected subcontractors on its website.
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Tracking the Money; Using it Wisely
Q. Has funding arrived yet, and are there controls in place for spending the funding?
A. Yes and yes. The Hanford Site received its first allocation of $1.57 billion in April, which is 80 percent of the anticipated funding of $1.96 billion. To ensure adequate controls are in place, 80 percent of Recovery Act funds are being allotted to the DOE sites for obligation against contracts. The remaining 20 percent is being held at DOE Headquarters and will be released after the projects are demonstrating adequate performance. Additionally, approximately only 30 percent of ARRA funds can be used for initial work until contractor work plans have been submitted, reviewed, validated and approved by DOE.
Q. How will Recovery Act funding be tracked at the Hanford Site?>
A. Contractors are tracking the money separately from annual base funding, using approved accounting systems, and reporting to DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM) on a weekly basis. The DOE field offices (the Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office) that manage cleanup of the Hanford Site will be sending reports to the EM Recovery Team, who will then make the information available on Recovery.gov.
Q. Is there a deadline for spending Recovery Act funding at Hanford?
A. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act calls for the money to be obligated (placed on contract for a specific work scope) by the end of fiscal year 2010 (Sept. 30, 2010) and spent by the end of fiscal year 2015 (Sept. 30, 2015). The DOE Office of Environmental Management, which directs activities at DOE sites like Hanford across the country, has given Hanford's DOE offices direction to spend the money and complete cleanup projects by the end of fiscal year 2011 (Sept. 30, 2011).
Q. Is it going to be a burden to spend this much money so quickly?
A. Absolutely not. We're honored to be in a position to assist with the nation's economic recovery efforts by hiring additional Hanford workers to take on important and impactful new cleanup work. As our contractors receive funding, they will be challenged to hire and train new workers quickly to move out on the new work scope. They're showing they're up to the challenge. Miscellaneous
Q. Some have criticized the government for increasing the country's debt by passing the Recovery Act. What's your perspective?
A. We're glad to be part of a national effort to help the economy by creating jobs, and getting more cleanup work done sooner at a cost savings makes good sense to us. Both will have a positive impact on the surrounding communities and the region, as well as the environment
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Note: Some frequently asked questions and answers may be posted to this page. You will not be identified in the Q & A posted.
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