![]() ![]() ![]() The growth of knowledge, research efforts, and subsequent changes in Site waste disposal policies and practices are traced. The earliest, 1940s knowledge base, assumptions and calculations about radioactive and chemical discharges, as discussed in the memos, correspondence and reports of the original Hanford Site (then Hanford Engineer Works) builders and operators, are reviewed. This paper presents original, primary-source research into the waste history of the Hanford Site. Clean-up milestones dictated in this agreement demand information about how, when, in what quantities and mixtures, and under what conditions, Hanford Site waste were generated and released. Recent events, including the designation of the Hanford Site as the ``flagship`` more » of Department of Energy (DOE) waste remediation efforts and the signing of the landmark Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (Tri-Party Agreement), have generated new interest in Hanford`s history. The paper also describes the founding and basic operating history of the Hanford Site, including World War II construction and operations, three major postwar expansions (1947-55), the peak years of production (1956-63), production phase downs (1964-the present), and some past suggestions and efforts to chemically treat, ``fractionate,`` and/or immobilize Hanford`s wastes. This paper acquaints the audience with historical waste practices and policies as they changed over the years at the Hanford Site, and with the generation of the major waste streams of concern in Hanford Site clean-up today. Therefore, Westinghouse Hanford Company employed historical research as a key, initial technique in identifying and quantifying known and unknown waste locations, components and source terms. Also, the Columbia River, the greatest single natural resource of the Pacific Northwest, flows past the Hanford Site`s 300 Area in close proximity to old fuel fabrication and waste disposal sites. Because the Hanford Site is large, and waste characterization and cleanup must move more » quickly under schedules set in the Hanford Federal Facility Order and Consent Agreement (``Tri-Party Agreement``), there was a need to understand the fuel fabrication wastes without undertaking exhaustive physical characterization. The result today is an extremely complex mixture of waste forms, locations, composition and potential migration pathways. Additionally, the national imperatives of World War II and the Cold War caused waste volumes to grow enormously, and disposal practices and policies shifted many times. Methods and techniques of fuel manufacture changed over the years, thus changing the components of the waste streams associated with the processes. Fuel fabrication activities took place in the 300 Area of the Hanford Site in eastern Washington State continuously between 19. ![]()
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