Construction is underway on the protective enclosure for the seventh reactor on the Hanford site, meeting another Office of Environmental Management 2022 priority.
In a June 21 Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management news release, crews from Central Plateau Cleanup Company are working on erecting the enclosure, or cocoon, which is designed to protect the K East Reactor building as the radioactivity in the decommissioned core decays over the coming decades.
“In less than a year, we’ve gone from a work planning document to nearly completing the steel frame while maintaining a spotless safety record,” Travis Creach, Central Plateau construction manager, said in the news release. “It has been an incredible project to work on.”
According to the news release, Mark French, EM Richland Operations Office division director for Hanford’s Central Plateau Cleanup Project and Facilities Division, noted that watching the project unfold in recent months has been impressive.
“Placing another reactor in interim safe storage is a huge achievement for the Hanford site, and certainly a key part to our cleanup mission,” he said in the news release.
"Another EM 2022 priority has been met at the @HanfordSite with construction underway on the protective enclosure for the seventh of nine former plutonium production reactors!" the DOE Environmental Management Twitter posted June 22.
