Deactivation and cleanout of the 308 Fuels Laboratory and the 232-Z Incinerator at the Hanford site

This paper describes the deactivation and source term reduction activities conducted over the recent past in two plutonium-contaminated Hanford Site buildings: the 308 Fuels Development Laboratory and the 232-Z Incinerator. Both of these facilities belong to the U.S. Department of Energy, and the projects are unique success stories carried out in direct support of EM-60 functions and requirements. In both cases the buildings, for different reasons, contained unacceptable amounts of plutonium, and were stabilized and placed in a safe, pre-D&D (decontamination and decommissioning) mode. The concept of deactivation as the last step in the operating life of a facility will be discussed. The need for and requirements of EM-60 transition between operations and D&D, the costs savings, techniques, regulations and lessons learned also will be discussed. This paper describes the strategies that led to successful source term reduction: accurate characterization, cooperation among different divisions within DOE and the Hanford Site, attention to regulations (especially unique in this case since the 232-Z Incinerator has been nominated as a Historic Structure to the National Register of Historic Places), and stakeholder concerns involving the proximity of the 308 Building to the Columbia River. The paper also weaves in the history, missions, and plutoniummore » accumulation of the two buildings. The lessons learned are cogent to many other present and future deactivation activities across the DOE complex and indeed across the world.« less