Hanford Contract Ceiling Reaches $45 Billion Over 10 Years; Fluor Accounts for Its Share Under Equity Method
Key Facts
Fluor announced on October 17, 2024, that the U.S. Department of Energy had approved the start of the Hanford Tank Waste Integrated Disposal Contract for joint venture H2C. The contract has an estimated ceiling of $45 billion over a 10-year ordering period, a contractual limit that does not represent confirmed revenue for Fluor. The announcement is part of a long-term program to operate the tank facilities and treat waste stored at the site. H2C is led by a subsidiary of BWX Technologies and includes BWXT, Amentum and Fluor. The company said it began accounting for its share of the contract's earnings under the equity method in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The contract covers operation of Hanford's tank farm facilities and subsequent operation of the waste treatment and immobilization plant. It also includes project management, security, emergency response and performance, as well as safety, health, environment and quality. The scope combines operation of existing infrastructure with later stages of waste treatment. Fluor has not specified the revenue or earnings it will receive from the contract; it said its share of earnings would be reflected in its accounts under the equity method. The announced contract ceiling therefore does not equal a guaranteed volume of work or revenue for the company.
Cleanup work at the site is continuing as waste retrieval from Tank A-103 progresses. In an update issued on September 29, 2026, the Department of Energy said retrieval activities would take place in stages through 2027, depending on available capacity in the double-shell tank system. The tank, located in the 200 East Area, contains about 385,000 gallons of legacy waste. The department links the pace of work to the availability of space to accommodate retrieved waste in double-shell tanks. This operational constraint puts retrieval in stages spanning more than one year, rather than in a single continuous operation.
Department of Energy data indicate the scale of Hanford's accumulated task: 56 million gallons of waste had been stored in 177 large tanks when production ended at the close of the Cold War. As of the department's September 2026 update, about 3.5 million gallons had been removed from 24 single-shell tanks. The department says the glass-and-grout path could accelerate completion of waste in the 200 East Area by 12 years, moving the date from 2051 to 2039. It estimated that this path could save taxpayers about $12 billion. The department also estimated that the combined glass-and-grout path could immobilize 3 to 4 million gallons of tank waste annually.
After completing work at A-103, the department's plan calls for moving to the 200 West Area, where it aims to begin retrieving waste from the first single-shell tank by 2030 and complete 22 tanks by 2040 using the grout path agreed with Washington state. On treatment, the department said in July 2026 that converting secondary concentrates from the Liquid Effluent Management Facility into grout and shipping them out of state avoids reprocessing them at the WTP facility. This could allow treatment of up to 20% more tank waste. In September 2026, the department also reported that the TSCR system had resumed treating waste after an outage that began on February 25. About 1 million gallons of pretreated waste were stored in AP-106 at the time of the update.
The department said the start of disposal of the first batch of waste immobilized in glass demonstrates that the systems, facilities and people needed to support tank waste treatment are working together. Hanford Site Manager Ray Jimmerson said, "The safe start of disposal proves that the systems, facilities and people needed to support tank waste treatment are working together." He added that every container buried reduces long-term environmental risks. In trading, Fluor shares, listed under the ticker FLR, closed at $46.16 on October 27, 2026, compared with a close of $44.88 on October 26. These are daily closing data, while the announcement approving the contract's start dates to October 2024.