Komatsu excavator makes light work of electrical works.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently teamed with contractor Washington Closure Hanford to complete a major recycling effort during cleanup of the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State. The work involved removing an electrical substation in the 300 Area, a former industrial complex about a mile north of the city of Richland that was the center of Hanford’s radiological research and nuclear fuel fabrication facilities for nearly 60 years.
Cleanup of the 300 Area is part of the River Corridor Closure Project. The River Corridor is a 220-square-mile section of the Site that borders the Columbia River and is DOE’s largest environmental closure project.
To complete the recycling effort, Washington Closure worked with a small business, Transformers Technologies of Salem, Ore., on a “materials for service contract.” The contract allowed Transformer Technologies to keep the recovered material – copper, steel and oil – as payment. A local company, Lampson Crane of Kennewick, Wash., performed the rigging and lifting activities.
