A low-profile team with EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo) plays a high-profile role in maintaining the safety and integrity of various Hanford Site waste sites and aging facilities.
Office of Environmental Management
October 24, 2023
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A team with EM contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company conducts an inspection inside the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant at the Hanford Site. Workers regularly survey and inspect hundreds of waste sites and dozens of facilities to help ensure safe and efficient remediation.
RICHLAND, Wash. – A low-profile team with EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo) plays a high-profile role in maintaining the safety and integrity of various Hanford Site waste sites and aging facilities.
The Field Operations team, consisting of about a dozen experienced workers, conducts routine surveys and monitors potential radiological, biological and industrial hazards at approximately 1,500 waste sites and 50 aging facilities within the central area of the Hanford Site.
Waste sites include old waste cribs, ponds, trenches, burial grounds, vaults and demolition sites. Cribs are aging underground structures.
“Every member of our team is vital to our mission success, none more so than our site surveillance teams, who often work in the background performing work that contributes to the overall advancement of the current cleanup mission,” said Andy Wiborg, EM Projects and Facilities Division team lead for Hanford’s Central Plateau Cleanup Project. “The information they gather through monitoring and inspection activities is invaluable for assessing the status of these waste sites and structures, which helps inform future remediation planning.”
Data on waste sites and facilities are logged in a Hanford database that documents and tracks historical information, investigations, remediation and closure-action activities.
The team uses an array of equipment to safely survey the waste sites, which range in size from a small parking lot to an 18-hole golf course. The equipment, with radiation detectors onboard, includes a tractor for large waste sites, a four-wheel-drive pickup truck and a smaller tractor. The team also uses walking-stick detectors for small sites and spot surveys.
“We survey the waste sites annually, semiannually or quarterly, depending on the history of issues and requirements at each site,” said Roy Plunkett, CPCCo’s Field Operations team manager.
In addition to surveys, the team conducts thorough inspections of waste sites to detect changes in conditions. They clean up small areas of contamination and remove surface debris.
The team also inspects facility exhaust stacks, emergency equipment and fire extinguishers, and performs general housekeeping.
-Contributor: Mark McKenna
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