Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is the Department of Energy Office of River Protection prime contractor responsible for reducing the risk posed by approximately 53 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous waste stored near the center of the 586 square-mile Hanford Site in southeastern Washington.  We are responsible for safely managing the waste until it can be prepared for disposal. 

The waste is stored in 177 underground tanks that include 149 older single-shell tanks, some of which date back to the Manhattan Project of World War II.  Up to 67 of these tanks have leaked as much as one million gallons of waste to the surrounding soil.  There are also 28 newer double-shell tanks.  To date no double-shell tanks have leaked.  The tanks are grouped in 18 so-called farms, and contain waste left over from both World War-II and post-war nuclear weapons production.  The waste in the tanks accounts for 60 percent by volume of the nation’s high-level radioactive waste.

Our primary focus is to empty the tanks, and we are accomplishing this in two ways. One is to upgrade tank-farm facilities in preparation for delivering high level waste to and from the Waste Treatment Plant. Secondly, we are developing and implementing supplemental technologies that can be used to treat the low-activity waste.