>>5584276 lb
to go along with Bechtel dig…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site
In 2000, the Department of Energy awarded a $4.3 billion contract to Bechtel, a San Francisco-based construction and engineering firm, to build a vitrification plant to combine the dangerous wastes with glass to render them stable. Construction began in 2002. The plant was originally scheduled to be operational by 2011, with vitrification completed by 2028.[92][98][99] According to a 2012 study by the General Accounting Office, there were a number of serious unresolved technical and managerial problems.[100] As of 2013 estimated costs were $13.4 billion with commencement of operations estimated to be in 2022 and about 3 decades of operation.[101]
In May 2007, state and federal officials began closed-door negotiations about the possibility of extending legal cleanup deadlines for waste vitrification in exchange for shifting the focus of the cleanup to urgent priorities, such as groundwater remediation. Those talks stalled in October 2007. In early 2008, a $600 million cut to the Hanford cleanup budget was proposed. Washington state officials expressed concern about the budget cuts, as well as missed deadlines and recent safety lapses at the site, and threatened to file a lawsuit alleging that the Department of Energy was in violation of environmental laws.[92] They appeared to step back from that threat in April 2008 after another meeting of federal and state officials resulted in progress toward a tentative agreement.[102]
During excavations from 2004 to 2007 a sample of purified plutonium was uncovered inside a safe in a waste trench, and has been dated to about the 1940s, making it the second-oldest sample of purified plutonium known to exist. Analyses published in 2009 concluded that the sample originated at Oak Ridge, and was one of several sent to Hanford for optimization tests of the T-Plant until Hanford could produce its own plutonium. Documents refer to such a sample, belonging to "Watt's group", which was disposed of in its safe when a radiation leak was suspected.[103][104]
Some of the radioactive waste at Hanford was supposed to be stored in the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository,[105] but after that project was suspended, Washington State sued, joined by South Carolina.[106] Their first suit was dismissed in July 2011.[107] In a subsequent suit, federal authorities were ordered to either approve or reject plans for the Yucca Mountain storage site.[108]
A potential radioactive leak was reported in 2013; the clean up was estimated to have cost $40 billion with $115 billion more required.[109]
I wonder what ever happened to all that silver used in the calutrons?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calutron