AIKEN, S.C.Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has opened an office in Richland, Wash. to better support EM’s work at the Hanford Site.

   “SRNL truly is a complex-wide resource. We are proud to have formed a partnership with DOE and the Hanford contractors that will allow us to further address the complicated issues related to legacy cleanup and remediation,” Lab Director Terry Michalske said. “This office is an important link between our main campus in South Carolina and Hanford. It allows us to more readily deploy technologies and processes successfully implemented at the Savannah River Site (SRS) and put them into place at Hanford.”

   At Hanford, SRNL supports EM’s Richland Operations Office (RL) and Office of River Protection (ORP).

   “As the national laboratory for the Office of Environmental Management, we have been charged with applying our science and engineering capabilities to address technical issues across the EM complex. In order to establish effective long-term engagement 3,000 miles from home, we needed a base for our staff to help accomplish our mission,” SRNL Associate Laboratory Director Jeff Griffin said. “But more than that, we need to be part of the community, not just flying in and out. We want to show that we are a partner in finding solutions for the long term.” 

   Griffin said SRNL’s Hanford office will work with DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) at Hanford.

   “Our capabilities and expertise are largely complementary to those of PNNL and other national labs,” Griffin said. “At Hanford, we are focusing on putting science to work, bringing our experience and the lessons learned from SRS, where we have made great progress in the remediation of groundwater and soil contamination, D&D of contaminated facilities and disposition of high-level waste. It’s time for SRNL to apply our expertise, experience and technology to help in the cleanup mission throughout the DOE complex.”

   Most of SRNL’s Hanford work focuses on the ORP mission, but the lab hopes to support RL’s remediation and deactivation and decommissioning (D&D) work on Hanford’s Central Plateau. The lab completed a radiation mapping device demonstration at the Plutonium Finishing Plant for Central Plateau cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company last year.

   “That was a big success and we are talking now about how we can help plan D&D operations in the future,” said Connie Herman, who leads SRNL’s Hanford Mission Program Office.