Episode 89: Hanford's $45B Waste Removal Enters New Phase

The Department of Energy's Hanford nuclear cleanup — the largest in U.S. history — entered a new operational phase this month as contractor Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure completed a 79,000-gallon waste retrieval and extracted a legacy pump that had been blocking next-generation equipment installation since 1993. Meanwhile, a newly finalized grouting agreement is reshaping the disposal strategy for tens of millions of gallons of low-level waste, with a public comment deadline in October that could determine whether DOE's dual glass-plus-grout approach survives regulatory scrutiny. Key Takeaways: Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure (BWXT, Amentum, Fluor Corp. JV) holds a 10-year, $45 billion contract in effect since 2024 covering 177 tanks and operation of the vitrification plant. Only 3.5 million of 56 million gallons have been removed from single-shell tanks so far; DOE is legally mandated to complete all single-shell removals by 2040 and begin high-level waste vitrification by 2033. The Bechtel-built vitrification plant cost approximately $20 billion through 2025 and took 20 years to develop; it began treating low-level waste last year. The newly finalized grouting agreement (July 2026) allows low-level waste from 22 tanks to be cemented and shipped to commercial disposal sites in Texas and Utah via subcontractors Perma-Fix, EnergySolutions, and Waste Control Specialists. The GAO estimated grouting ~24 million gallons could cost $480 million to $1 billion for facility construction, plus $12 million to $72 million in transportation and disposal. DOE is accepting public comments until October 9 on two permit modifications to expand grouting — Washington State ecology officials have raised concerns that expansion could divert resources without increasing net waste treated. The pump extraction operation required 10 months of design, 10 months of fabrication and planning, and 4 months of field prep for a single-day field operation — now a documented template for future legacy equipment removal. The double-shell tanks serving as intermediate storage are near maximum capacity, creating a hard bottleneck that is constraining retrieval pace from the more leak-prone single-shell tanks. Whether the grouting pathway can relieve that pressure — or whether it becomes a regulatory and legal flashpoint — will be determined in the months ahead. Developers and contractors operating in the federal environmental remediation space should monitor the October 9 comment deadline and any subsequent permit decisions closely. Subscribe to Built Different for daily updates on Modular construction reality.