222-S Laboratory
Analytical services at the 222-S Laboratory provide critical support for Hanford tank waste cleanup and for other Hanford Site cleanup activities. The 222-S Laboratory is located in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Site.
The Department of Energy awarded ATL a contract on January 3, 2005, for providing technical services to receive, analyze, and report the results from approximately 25,000 inorganic, organic, and radionuclide analyses. The analyses will be performed on approximately 3,000 highly radioactive and/or hazardous samples received from multiple sources on the Hanford site.
222-S Laboratory Complex and Related Structures
- 222-S Building
- 222-S Building Annex
- 222-SA Standards Laboratory
- 222-SB Filter Building
- 222-SC Filter Building
- 222-SE Filter Building
- 222-SF Material Staging Area
- 2716-S Storage Building
- 212-S and 213-S Gas Storage Docks
- HS-0065 Chemical Storage Unit
- CFX Pit
Waste Handling Facilities
- 207-SL Retention Basin
- 225-WB
- 219-S Waste Handling Facility
- 222-SD Solid Waste Handling/Storage System
- Bone Yard
- 222-S Dangerous and Mixed Waste Storage Areas (HS-0082 and HS-0083)
Administrative and Office Buildings
- 2704-S Building: Management and Analytical Project Management offices
- MO-037: Chemists offices
- MO-039: Analytical Process Development offices
- MO-924: Inorganic chemists’ offices
- MO-291: QA and Laboratory Support Services
- MO-028: Radiological Control
Facility Descriptions:
222-S Laboratory and Related Structures
- 222-S Building--The 222-S Building is a two-story building 111.5 m (366 ft) long and 32.6 m (107 ft) wide located in the southeast corner of the 200 West Area.
The first floor of the 222-S Building is divided into four general areas. The west end contains the lunchroom, offices, and locker rooms, which are maintained free of radioactivity and toxic chemicals. The west central section contains laboratories and service areas for work with radioactive and/or toxic materials. The east central section, commonly referred to as the multi-curie section, contains laboratories, hot cells, and service areas for working with radioactive samples. The east end contains the Hot Cell Facility, Room 11A. The Hot Cell Facility is the newest addition and contains six cells with manipulators for instrument analysis of high-dose rate samples. The multi-curie section contains four older cells with manipulators. These cells are generally used to develop remote analytical methods and procedures.
The partial basement includes tunnels containing service piping and vacuum pumps, a counting room, an instrument maintenance shop, and a scanning electron microscope laboratory.
The second floor includes the ventilation supply fans, supply and exhaust ductwork, the ventilation system control room, an electrical shop, a manipulator repair shop, and storage areas.
- 222-SA Standards Laboratory--The 222-SA Laboratory is a five-wide trailer located southeast of the 222-S Building. Non-radioactive standards are prepared in part of this laboratory. Non-radiological process development work is done in the other section of the laboratory.
- 222-SB Filter Building--The 222-SB Filter Building, located south of the 222-S Building, houses 96 high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters to provide final filtration for the 222-S Laboratory. Under normal operation of the ventilation system, three electrically powered fans exhaust air from the 222-S Laboratory. Exhaust air leaves the 222-SB Filter Building through the 296-S-21 stack. If exhaust plenum differential pressure becomes too low, supplementary exhaust ventilation will be provided through the 222-SE Filter Building via direct drive diesel powered exhaust fan.
- 222-SC Filter Building--The 222-SC Filter Building, located north of the 222-S Building, contains the second- and third-stage HEPA filtration for hot cells 1-A, 1-E-1, 1-E-2, 1-F, and 11-A-1 through 11-A-6. The hot cells in rooms 1-A, 1-E, 1-F, and 11-A are serviced by the main building supply and exhaust ventilation. The 222-SC Filter Building houses five parallel pairs of HEPA filters, which provide filtration to hot cell exhaust air before it enters the main exhaust plenum and final filtering in the 222-SB and 222-SE Filter Buildings.
- 222-SE Filter Building--The 222-SE Filter Building, located south of the 222-S Building, is a facility that houses 56 HEPA filters. This building provides redundant backup filtering capabilities for the 222-S Laboratory exhaust utilizing a diesel powered exhaust fan.
- 212-S Gas Storage Docks--Storage areas, located on the south side of the 222-S Laboratory, will accommodate a large number of gas cylinders that support instruments in the laboratories. These docks allow separation of the cylinders into new and used, and into flammables and oxidizers.
- Chemical Storage Unit (CSU)--The CSU (HS-0065) is located north of 222-SA Building and provides safe storage of bulk chemicals. It is divided into two sections for separate storage of flammables and all other chemicals. The sections have numerous sump areas to prevent incompatible chemicals from mixing in case of accidental breakage.
- CFX Pit--The CFX Pit is located to the south of 222-SB Filter Building. It is a 5.2 m (17 ft) deep pit with 3.7 m (12 ft) of water shielding two 252Cf sources which support delayed neutron activation analysis. These sources are encapsulated in Department of Transportation (DOT) special forms containers. Because the 252Cf material is in DOT special forms containers, they are excluded from the 222-S Laboratory source term per DOE-STD-1027-92.
Waste Handling Facilities:
Those facilities dedicated to the processing, storage, or handling of wastes from the 222-S Laboratory and auxiliary buildings are described in the following paragraphs.
- 207-SL Retention Basin--The 207-SL retention basin, located northeast of the 222-S Laboratory, provides temporary hold-up of wastewater with a low potential for having radioactive or hazardous constituents prior to discharge to the Treated Effluent Disposal Facility (TEDF) or the Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF). This facility is comprised of two below-grade 94,635-L (25,000-gal) compartments and three above-grade 75,708-L (20,000-gal) tanks. This facility allows batch collection, sampling, and discharge of the waste, provided the wastewater meets release/acceptance criteria. Water not meeting the release criteria will normally be transferred to the holding tanks and an action plan for disposal will be developed.
- 225-WB--The 225-WB Building houses the electronic interface to the TEDF.
- 218-W-7 Dry Waste Burial Ground--The 218-W-7 Dry Waste Burial Ground is located southeast of the 222-S Building. This underground tank was removed from service before 1975. It was used primarily for disposal of contaminated dry hood waste generated by the 222-S Laboratory. It is classified as a CERCLA site in Operable Unit RO3. This site has been assigned to the environmental restoration contractor for cleanup.
- 219-S Waste Handling Facility--The 219-S Waste Handling Facility, located north of the 11-A hot cell addition to the 222-S Building, collects liquid mixed waste generated by the 222-S Laboratory operations. This facility consists of a below-grade containment vault, an operations building, and an attached concrete-walled sample gallery. The containment vault is divided into two sections, called cells A and B, which contain the liquid waste tanks and a moisture de-entrainer tank. The waste tanks are vented through the de-entrainer and a HEPA filter to the atmosphere via the 296-S-16 stack. The operations building contain the operating gallery, the pipe trench, and a tank of caustic that is used to neutralize the waste tanks. The concrete sample gallery contains the waste sampling hood, which is vented through HEPA filtration to the atmosphere via the 296-S-23 stack. This area is classified as a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) treatment, storage and disposal (TSD) facility.
- 222-SD Solid Waste Handling/Storage System--The 222-SD Solid Waste Handling/Storage System, located north of the 222-S Building, is a concrete-shielded drum storage area. This area is used for temporary storage of radioactive waste drums before transfer to the burial ground.
- 222-S Permitted Treatment, Storage, and Disposal (TSD) Area--This area consists of two metal storage lockers (HS-0082 and HS-0083) sited on a concrete pad north of the 222-S Building, which can store drums of radioactive waste, mixed waste and non-radioactive dangerous waste.
The drums are stored until transferred to the Hanford Central Waste Complex (mixed waste) or offsite for disposal.