The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reached a Tri-Party Agreement Milestone ahead of schedule when Envirocon, along with its prime subcontractor Terranear PMC, recently completed remediation of five waste sites and one burial ground in the 300 Area of the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington.

Regulatory agencies documented the remediation as complete in mid-June 2010, thereby beating the September 30, 2010 deadline by three months. Since work commenced on the first waste site in September 2008, Envirocon crews have removed and transported more than 60,000 tons of radioactive waste as part of the remediation effort.

“We’re making tremendous strides in cleaning up the River Corridor -- the 300 Area is a great example of progress being made at Hanford. Cleaning up these contamination sources helps protect the Columbia River and reduce our footprint of active cleanup,” said Mark French, DOE’s Federal Project Director for the River Corridor Closure Project.

The Hanford Site sits on 586-square-miles in southeastern Washington State and is home to nine former nuclear reactors and their associated processing facilities that were built beginning in 1943.

In 1989, the DOE joined with the Washington State Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in signing the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order more commonly known as the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA). This document outlines legally enforceable milestones for Hanford cleanup over the next several decades.