A crane once used to unload barges at Hanford's N Reactor now is creating 20 jobs in Finley.

The gantry crane is being moved this month to the Gunderson Northwest railroad car repair shop - formerly called Pacific Railcar - in the unincorporated area east of Kennewick.

"We would've never been able to afford it, not this size crane," said Mike Curtis, Gunderson Northwest plant manager. "It would've taken 15 to 20 years to pay for this crane."

Such a crane would cost about $400,000, he estimated. Instead, Gunderson Northwest is investing about $75,000 for shipping and the Finley setup, and $8,700 to the Port of Benton for the surplus program administrative costs.

The six Hanford contractors also are giving $15,000 in private money to Gunderson Northwest to build a foundation for the crane and to buy a new welding station.

A gantry crane has a bridgelike frame. The crane's lift moves back and forth along the frame.

This crane is 65 feet high, 135 feet wide and can lift 60 tons. It includes a smaller crane able to lift 10 tons.

In Finley, the gantry crane will be used to assemble railroad car sides and to unload items off rail cars. Half of the crane already is at the rail car shop. It should be working by early February.

"We have to have it certified. We'll have to have it rewired, put footings in and stuff," Curtis said, speaking on a cellular phone at the N Reactor.

The N Reactor crane was built in the early 1960s for $174,000. It's in the Hanford 100 Area, which is 40 miles north of Richland. The crane also supported the reactor's pumping station.

The N Reactor operated from 1963 to 1987 and was formally deactivated this July, meaning nuclear fuel pieces, contaminated water and most equipment were removed and entrances to contaminated areas were closed off. It was the last of Hanford's nine Cold War plutonium production reactors.

Now considered surplus by the Department of Energy, the crane has been the focus of a transfer process started about nine months ago. That's when Curtis struck up a conversation with Michael Minette of Fluor Daniel Hanford during a Port of Kennewick event.

"I was talking with him about the surplus list and if there's anything on it we'd need. He said, 'What would you want?' So I put a crane on my wish list," Curtis said.

Gunderson Northwest already has hired two people to handle increased business. Six more entered training when the crane transfer was approved, and two more groups of six are to be hired in the near future.

The Finley operation is up to 38 full-time and seven seasonal workers. They repair or refurbish about 1,000 rail cars each year.

With the crane and the new hires, production should increase to about 1,250 rail cars, Curtis said. "We've increased our work force by 25 percent; we'll increase production by 25 percent." Curtis previously was the managing partner of Pacific Railcar, which was purchased early this year by one of its biggest customers. Gunderson is based in Portland.

Crane West is the contractor taking apart and reassembling the gantry crane. The Boise-based company is using a 300-ton mobile crane - one of 14 in the country -to do the work.

The Project Hanford Management Contractors have committed to help diversify the Mid-Columbia economy from dependence on Hanford jobs.

The companies involved in the Gunderson Northwest project are Fluor Daniel Hanford, Lockheed Martin Hanford, Numatec Hanford, Waste Management Federal Services of Hanford, B&W Hanford and DE&S Hanford.