How Geology Impacts Superfund Cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington State
Sarah Springer
Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo)
The Hanford Site, part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons complex, encompasses an area of about 1,500 km2 (580 mi2) northwest of the city of Richland along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington State. In 1943, as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, the federal government took possession of the Hanford Site to build the world’s first large-scale plutonium-production reactor. Between 1943 and 1963, nine nuclear reactors were built, mainly to produce weapons-grade plutonium. During reactor operations (the last reactor operated through 1987), large amounts of chemical and radioactive wastes were released into the environment that have contaminated the soil and groundwater beneath portions of the Hanford Site. Groundwater at the Hanford Site flows toward the Columbia River, which is the primary exposure route for contaminants to reach human and ecological receptors.
The Hanford Site is located in the Pasco Basin where basalt bedrock is overlain by fluvial sediments and a variety of cataclysmic Ice Age Flood deposits. Understanding the complex geology of the subsurface is critical to the success of soil and groundwater remediation efforts on the site. Whether a project is in the early stages of characterization and conceptual site model development or evaluating the performance of an existing remedy, geologic expertise is a central component.
The maturity of cleanup at the Hanford Site means there are ample data to interpret: over 12,000 boreholes and 5,000 active groundwater wells, borehole based geophysical logs, surface geophysical surveys, core samples, aquifer tests, laboratory evaluations and stratigraphic studies. This presentation provides an overview of geologic modeling and interpretation at the Hanford Site, with examples from remediation projects at different points in the cleanup process.
BIO:
Sarah Springer is a licensed geologist working as the Risk, Modeling and Characterization Integration Manager at Central Plateau Cleanup Company (CPCCo). The through-going theme of Ms. Springer’s career has been the leveraging of subsurface models to support durable decision-making. After completing her master’s degree in structural geology studying earthquake hazards in the deep San Andreas Observatory at Depth scientific drilling project, she spent 10 years in oil and gas development and exploration at Chevron and BHL Consulting. She worked in long-term reservoir management, 3D seismic interpretation, geostatistical reservoir modeling, deep water exploration prospect maturation, and planning and geosteering of horizontal and multi-lateral production wells. Six years ago she shifted her focus to nuclear remediation at the Hanford Site in Southeastern Washington where she was surprised to learn her experience in oil and gas datasets and interpretation are quite relevant to the environmental sector.
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