HANFORD, Wash.-Preparations are underway to demolish the K West Reactor Annex on the Hanford Site as part of ongoing cleanup efforts.
The planned demolition includes draining and removing the reactor’s spent-fuel basin where the sludge was stored, then placing the reactor building in interim safe storage or “cocooning” according to a press release from the Department of Energy.
“The annex building accomplished its mission to support the safe packaging and transfer of sludge from the basin in 2019,” said Mark French, Department of Energy Richland Operations Office division director for Hanford’s Central Plateau Cleanup Project.
Crews with Central Plateau Cleanup Company have been placing contaminated material into steel tubes, which will then be filled with grout and removed during demolition.
According to the DOE workers also recently installed a system to pump and filter contaminated water from the basin to be taken by tanker for safe disposal.
Once the K West Annex is cocooned it will be safer for cleanup actions in the future as the reactor core decays.
“While we still have plenty of work to do, it’s exciting to see how far we’ve come,” said Mike Kruzic, CPCCo 100 K Closure Projects manager
