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Hanford Waste Treatment Plant
Project Information
- Project Location:
- WA
- Status:
- Completed
- Structure Type:
- Sewage / Water Treatment Plant
Scope Of Work
A solution to an environmental threat
As part of its mission to safely complete five decades of environmental cleanup of legacy waste, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is undertaking an unprecedented engineering and technically challenging project to construct a first-of-a-kind waste treatment complex. It will immobilize some 56 million gallons (nearly 212 million liters) of liquid and semisolid nuclear and chemical waste, a legacy of World War II and Cold War nuclear weapons production.
At the DOE's Hanford Site, 177 aging underground tanks store the waste. Some of the tanks date to World War II, when the site was established as part of the Manhattan Project, and 67 have leaked an estimated 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters), threatening the Columbia River, surrounding communities, and residents downstream in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The tanks are corroding and require constant maintenance.
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