Workers at the Hanford vitrification plant have begun introducing chemicals akin to tank waste into the facility’s melter in the latest step to test its systems ahead of full-scale operations. 

The newly named acting deputy for the U.S. Department of Energy Environment Management’s Hanford Field Office is now its top leader.

A Pasco-based union that got its start using cutting-edge technology on the top-secret Manhattan Project at Hanford continues to innovate as it prepares the next generation for careers as plumbers and pipefitters.

Federal lawmakers will next come up with their own budget proposals before negotiating a final budget ahead of the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

About $65 billion has been spent on the cleanup effort to date. That funding has paid for thousands of workers to empty storage tanks, address contamination in the soil and water, and build facilities necessary to eventually treat, vitrify and store the waste at the site or transport it to other locations.

One Hanford contractor estimated that collectively, the Hanford prime contractors donate more than $1 million to nonprofits each year in both financial donations and volunteered time. 

No one knows what the rapid changes at the federal level mean for the Hanford site but the work is continuing.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the EEOICPA program, which is intended to compensate DOE employees who became ill after being exposed to harmful substances while working at certain sites, including Hanford. But it can be a challenging program to navigate.

Hanford’s new AI tool can condense emails and analyze and summarize complicated documents, saving Hanford’s human workers tons of time, according to Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS), which developed the system.

An economic development effort that has pumped tens of millions of dollars into the Tri-City economy for more than 30 years is changing how it does business due to a past legal dispute with a prospective recipient of one of its loans.