Approximately 53 million gallons of highly radioactive wastes are stored in 177 underground tanks, including 149 older single-shell tanks, at the Hanford Site in Washington State. That waste, which was derived from production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear defense program, has been accumulating since 1944. The waste poses a serious health and safety concern to the public and to the environment. Since most of the single-shell tanks have exceeded their design life, that risk is growing. Sixty-seven of the single-shell tanks are known to have leaked an estimated one million gallons of waste to the surrounding soil. In 1998, Congress established the Office of River Protection (ORP) to manage the retrieval, treatment, and disposal of the Hanford tank waste, and then to close the tanks in compliance with the Tri-Party Agreement between DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Washington State Department of Ecology. This must be done to protect the Columbia River, the surrounding communities, and the economic future of the region. The plan for the River Protection Project (RPP) to treat the tank waste is divided into two phases with 10 percent of the waste mass containing 25 percent of the radioactivity treated in Phase 1 with the balance of mission to follow. Phased implementation was chosen so that the initial waste treatment would start with robust, demonstrated technology. The phased approach provides flexibility to make changes in the future as new information and technologies emerge. The focus of this paper is to outline the strategy ORP is pursuing for completing the RPP in as safe, timely and cost-effective manner as possible.
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