Hanford Team Reflects on Site’s History, Looks Forward to Waste Treatment

RICHLAND, Wash. – EM Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance led a panel discussion about Hanford’s past, present, and future with leaders from the site’s major cleanup contractors during this year’s National Cleanup Workshop.

“Hanford is on the list of great public works of the last century, when you think about the amount of work that was done and the importance of the work to the nation and the world,” Vance said. “It was a very important piece of history and very important outcome for our country.”

At the time of EM’s creation in 1989, roughly 160 cleanup milestones were established in the Tri-Party Agreement, which governs cleanup at Hanford. As time went on, hundreds of milestones were added. As of October 2018, more than 1,600 milestones had been completed, Vance said.

“We’ve had a phenomenal last 30 years,” Vance said.

Ty Blackford, president and CEO of cleanup contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company, summarized the company’s work scope over the years.

“Our mission has been to protect the Columbia River, get off the river, and that mission is moving forward,” he said.

Blackford then announced that the years long process of transferring sludge away from a reactor basin had been completed recently — prompting applause from the audience of nearly 800 workshop participants.

Washington River Protection Solutions President and CEO John Eschenberg, whose company manages the mission of retrieving 56 million gallons of waste stored in underground tanks, described a shift in the culture at Hanford as workers advance toward treating the waste.

“I can tell you there is excitement in the air at Hanford because we’ve been working to this end for decades,” Eschenberg said.

He described a countdown clock for waste treatment in the lobby at the EM Office of River Protection that he says helps to focus the entire Hanford workforce.

“It has created this unity among all of us and we’re all driving toward this one objective,” Eschenberg said. “Now to see this countdown timer clicking away, this is very exciting for us all.”

After describing efforts in the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) construction, progress toward commissioning, and developing the future workforce, Bechtel National, Inc. Principal Vice President and WTP Project Director Valerie McCain echoed Eschenberg’s sentiments.

“It’s an exciting time on the project and in this mission. It feels different,” McCain said. “There are a lot of challenges that remain in front of us, and it’s going to take all of us here working closely together to be successful.”

Bob Wilkinson, president of site services contractor Mission Support Alliance (MSA), said MSA celebrates the site’s successes as part of the greater Hanford team.

“Their success is our success and Hanford’s success. We celebrate with them, because we’re in there together,” Wilkinson said. “We enable, we create, and we allow them to execute what they need to be successful.”

The entire workforce across the site is pulling toward the goal of treating the waste.

“It’s really about all of us working together, so we come together at that critical point when we’re all ready to start making glass,” Vance said. “We’re thinking about that every single day and we’re working together to get everyone on the site thinking about being in an operational mindset to support site-wide commissioning activities in about 20 months.”