Nine years of preparation paid off this week as Hanford workers moved the first of the highly radioactive sludge out of the K West Reactor Basin not far from the Columbia River.
“The sludge is some of the most hazardous material at Hanford, so moving it away from the river to safe storage in a robust engineered facility in the center of the site significantly reduces risk,” said Doug Shoop, manager of the Department of Energy Hanford Richland Operations Office.
The K West Basin is 400 yards from the river.
Late Tuesday afternoon CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. workers transferred the first batch of sludge out of underwater containers in the K West Basin into a storage container inside a shipping cask at an annex built nearby for the transfer.
Annette Cary – Tri-City Herald – June 13, 2018.
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