The U.S. Department of Energy is responsible for one of the largest nuclear Hanford Site Cleanup cleanup efforts in the world, managing the Examples of Before Cleanup Began (1989) legacy of five decades of nuclear weapons Cleanup Work Completed production. At its peak, this national 586-square-mile footprint of • 82-square-mile footprint of active weapons complex consisted of 16 major active cleanup cleanup remaining facilities, including vast reservations of land in the States of Idaho, Nevada, South 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel • COMPLETED: Moved all spent fuel Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington. stored near the Columbia River to dry storage Nowhere in the DOE Complex is cleanup more challenging than at the Hanford Site 20 tons of leftover plutonium in • COMPLETED: Stabilized and in southeastern Washington. Hanford the Plutonium Finishing Plant shipped plutonium off-site made more than 20 million pieces of uranium metal fuel for nine nuclear •977 waste sites remediated, reactors along the Columbia River. Five 1,012 waste sites, 522 facilities, 428 facilities demolished, 18 million tons soil/debris removed huge plants in the center of the Hanford 9 plutonium production reactors Site processed 110,000 tons of fuel from near the Columbia River • 6 reactors cocooned (associated the reactors, discharging an estimated 450 facilities demolished) billion gallons of liquids to soil disposal 1 preserved sites and 56 million gallons of radioactive waste to 177 large underground tanks. More than 100 square miles of • 15.6 billion gallons treated, 306 Plutonium production ended in the late groundwater contaminated tons contamination removed 1980s. Hanford cleanup began in 1989, when a • Pumpable liquids and 2 million landmark agreement was reached between 56 million gallons of waste in 177 gallons of solids transferred to DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection underground tanks; up to 67 newer, double-shell tanks Agency, and Washington State. Known as tanks presumed to have leaked • 16 tanks retrieved and 2 more the Tri-Party Agreement, the accord underway established hundreds of milestones for bringing the Hanford site into compliance One tank waste retrieval with federal and state environmental • 10 retrieval technologies available regulations. technology available After more than 25 years of cleanup, considerable progress has been made at No treatment capability for Waste Treatment Plant under Hanford, reducing the risk the site poses underground tank waste construction – 60 percent complete to the health and safety of workers, the public, and the environment. 15,000 cubic meters of • 12,417 cubic meters of waste plutonium-contaminated waste retrieved Points of Contact: buried or stored on site • 649 shipments of waste off-site Mark Heeter, DOE Richland Operations (509) 373-1970 Hanford Site Employment* [email protected] Employees 9,175 Carrie Meyer, DOE Office of River Protection (509) 372-0810 *Includes federal employees and employees of Hanford prime [email protected] contractors and pre-selected subcontractors (as of Sept. 30, 2016).

For more information, visit www.hanford.gov

October 2016