Shrink the Contaminated Area
This plan accelerates the remediation of several groups of waste sites located outside the exclusive
waste management portion of the Central Plateau. Early remediation and closure of these would
substantially reduce the contaminated area affected by Hanford and help achieve the vision of only
limited contamination outside the exclusive waste management area. Most of the sites in this area
are contaminated only slightly and do not represent high-risk sites; however, their remediation and
closure is a required element of the 200 Area cleanup.
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"Shrinking the contaminated area" describes DOE's objective to remediate waste sites
outside the Central Plateau on the Hanford Site so those areas can be released for
other uses as soon as possible.
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Some of these sites have released radioactive and hazardous substances to the groundwater, but in
most cases the residual contamination is not at levels requiring interim action. Early completion of
actions at these sites would expedite cleanup of the Central Plateau and assist in controlling the
release of certain contaminants to the groundwater.
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