DOE consolidates Hanford’s management offices

Beginning last week, the two Department of Energy offices responsible for the environmental cleanup of the department's Hanford Site have been combined under a new name: the Hanford Field Office. Previously, management of the 586-square-mile site near Richland, Wash., was split between the Richland Operations Office and the DOE Office of River Protection (ORP).

According to Brian Vance, manager of the now-combined Hanford Field Office, the consolidation of offices follows progress the DOE has made in commissioning Hanford's Low-Activity Waste Facility, part of the site's Waste Treatment and Isolation Plant (WTP). Also known as the Vit Plant, the WTP is being built to treat and immobilize in glass through vitrification Hanford's approximately 54 million gallons of mixed radioactive and chemical waste stored in underground tanks.

Background: The Richland Operations Office had been in place since the late 1960s after the Hanford Site transitioned from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. In 1989, the mission of the Hanford Site and the Richland Operations Office changed from national security to environmental cleanup.

Congress created the ORP as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 1999. It was established to provide a singular focus on delivering the capability to safely treat the liquid waste that has been stored in Hanford's 177 underground tanks. The waste is a result of decades of plutonium production at the site.

The reason: "With the capability of large-scale tank waste treatment now in the commissioning process through the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste facilities and program, the objective for which ORP was created has been effectively achieved," said Vance.

"Over the last several years, we've taken organizational steps to address redundancies between the offices, realizing efficiencies, and enhancing our alignment toward achieving our cleanup goals. The office combination is the logical next step in establishing an integrated and galvanized enterprise to successfully lead the full scope of the cleanup mission into the future," Vance added.

The offices were officially combined on October 1.