Workers with EM Richland Operations Office (RL) contractors Central Plateau Cleanup Company and Hanford Mission Integration Solutions recently teamed to remove three 50-foot-tall exhaust stacks near the Columbia River, further transforming the Hanford Site skyline.
Since last fall, crews have been tearing down a decommissioned boiler building that provided heat to numerous facilities that supported the K West Reactor during Cold War operations.
To allow below-grade demolition of the K West structure to continue, the large ventilation stacks connected with the building had to be removed. While previous stack removal projects at Hanford involved controlled explosives, this effort required a little more finesse.
The joint contractor effort required extensive preparation and close coordination among several teams. Ironworkers rigged a crane to each stack for stability, while a pipefitter on an aerial lift carefully cut the almost 50-foot-tall steel towers with a torch. When the cutting was complete and the aerial lift moved out of the way, the crane operator lifted each 7,000-pound stack, safely lowering them to the ground. Several spotters on the ground ensured the well-orchestrated plan proceeded as designed.
EM contractor Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, prepare to attach a crane’s cable to one of three exhaust stacks to enable the 7,000-pound steel tower to be safely lowered to the ground after it is cut from an old boiler building on the Hanford Site.
“The safe completion of complex projects like this reinforces the value of our collaborative One Hanford approach: everyone working toward a common goal to accomplish the mission,” said Mark French, RL federal project director for Hanford’s Columbia River corridor and Central Plateau. “These stacks were visible from a long distance, and their removal provides very visual evidence of the ongoing cleanup progress.”
The stacks will be cut into smaller pieces and disposed at Hanford’s onsite engineered landfill. Final demolition activities on the structure are expected to be finished later this month. The project is part of ongoing efforts to reduce risk to the nearby Columbia River.
