Over decades of operation, the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site has released nearly two trillion liters (450 billion gallons) of liquid into the vadose zone. The composition of this liquid ranged from clean Columbia River water to effluent contaminated with chemicals and radionuclides from the plutonium refinement processes conducted on the Central Plateau (also known as the 200 Areas). This practice resulted in contamination of the vadose zone and groundwater. Those contaminants that still reside within the vadose zone have the potential to contaminate groundwater in the future. A treatability test is underway to support remedy selection and design, deployment, and operation of deep vadose zone remediation technologies for the Central Plateau Area of the Hanford Site.
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