Fluor Reaches Important Milestones at DOE's Hanford Site
2008-03-25 12:29:30 -
www.fluor.com - Fluor Corporation Media Relations: Keith Stephens, 469-398-7624 Geoff Tyree, 509-372-1145 or Investor Relations: Ken Lockwood, 469-398-7220 Jason Landkamer, 469-398-7222 Fax: 469-398-7277 Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) announced today that Fluor Hanford, a prime contractor at the nuclear cleanup site in Washington State, and the Department of Energy (DOE) have reached two key milestones in the past three months. In December, Fluor Hanford finished consolidating and removing radioactive sludge from the floors of the two K Basins, and just last week, finished draining all the water - a million gallons - from the K East Basin.
Hanford's K Basins, which sit just 400 yards from the Columbia River, were used to store 80 percent of the Department of Energy's spent nuclear fuel left over from processing plutonium during the Cold War. Fluor Hanford finished removing the 2,300 tons of spent fuel from the Basins in 2004.
Workers began draining the K East Basin this past February, working around the clock to transport the radioactive water in 5,000-gallon tanker trucks to a treatment facility on the Hanford Site. More than 220 trips were required to complete the cleanup effort.
"The last several months mark major cleanup accomplishments at Hanford's K Basins for both the DOE and Fluor," said John Hopkins, Group Executive of Fluor Corporation. "I could not be more proud of our entire team. They completed a very difficult and important job with great skill. Most importantly, they did the work safely. Their determination and hard work have reduced the risks to the environment, the Tri-Cities, and those people along the Columbia River."
Later this summer, workers will begin using heavy equipment to tear down the basin's superstructure. Ultimately, the basin itself will be removed to allow access to the soil underneath that became contaminated when the basin leaked in the 1970s and the 1990s.
"Draining the basin is a big achievement, and one that we and Hanford's stakeholders have been looking forward to," said Con Murphy, president and CEO of Fluor Hanford. "This means we can start working toward demolishing the building, and ultimately, remove this facility that used to be one of the greatest hazards on the Hanford Site."
About Fluor Hanford
A prime contractor to the Department of Energy at the Hanford Site since 1996, Fluor Hanford has approximately 3,600 employees and manages several major activities at the site, including dismantling former nuclear processing facilities, cleaning up the site's contaminated groundwater, retrieving and processing transuranic waste for off-site shipment, maintaining the site's infrastructure, and operating the Volpentest HAMMER Training & Education Center.
About Fluor
Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) provides services on a global basis in the fields of engineering, procurement, construction, operations, maintenance and project management. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Fluor is a FORTUNE 500 company with revenues of $16.7 billion in 2007. For more information, visit www.fluor.com.
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Sludge Removal and K East Basin Draining Now Complete
