RICHLAND -- Engineers have marked another milestone in work to get Hanford's vitrification plant operating in 2019 to treat radioactive waste.
The heating, ventilation and air conditioning system design has been completed for the High Level Waste Facility.
"It is a nuclear-quality system that will ensure contaminated air does not leave the facility and helps protect the workers, the environment and the public," said Steve Cruz, area engineering manager for the building, in a statement.
It also will help cool the facility, which houses melters that will heat mixtures of waste and glass-forming materials to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit.
That area of the building will be kept at 150 degrees to allow containers to cool enough to be moved out of the facility and to prevent damage to the equipment and surrounding concrete.
The HVAC system will include more than 600 tons of materials manufactured to meet nuclear grade specifications and nearly 150 major pieces of equipment. The equipment includes air-handling units, exhaust fans and HEPA filters. Equipment is designed to allow remote operations.
The system design comprises about 70 drawings, which are supported by more than 80 detailed calculations and 600 mechanical data sheets. The calculations provide information such as heat loads, duct pressures and air temperatures.
The design for the High Level Waste Facility, one of the four major buildings at the plant, is 85 percent complete.
Construction should be done in 2016. The building will be used to turn high-level radioactive waste left from the production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program into glass logs for permanent disposal.
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First dampers for vit plant ready for testing, installation
First dampers for vit plant ready for testing, installation
The Hanford vitrification plant has received the first of 32 large nuclear-quality dampers for its High Level Waste Facility, according to Department of Energy contractor Bechtel National.
The 1,350-pound dampers are part of the building's extensive filter system and will be essential to maintaining contamination boundaries during plant operations.
Twenty of the 32 stainless steel dampers will isolate contaminated air flow during filter system maintenance using remote-operated vertical sliding doors.
Temporary storage proposed for vit plant waste
Temporary storage proposed for vit plant waste
Hanford contractor officials are proposing a temporary storage system for Hanford's treated high-level radioactive waste that easily can be expanded, given uncertainties about the nation's plans for a national waste repository.
Washington River Protection Solutions formed an independent review team that is recommending a new Hanford building large enough to store as much high-level radioactive waste as the Hanford vitrification plant is expected to treat in a decade. But if needed, more vaults could be added.
The initial plans do not include a shipping facility. Given austere federal budget conditions, it makes sense to wait to add that when the nation is ready to ship the waste, said Tom Fletcher, Department of Energy acting assistant manager of the Hanford tank farms.
Removal vessels arrive for Hanford vit plant
Removal vessels arrive for Hanford vit plant
Two decontamination vessels that are essential to safely removing canisters of glassified radioactive waste produced at the Hanford vitrification plant's High Level Waste Facility have been delivered to the project.
The titanium steel vessels weigh 4,200 pounds and measure 2.5 feet in diameter and 18 feet tall.
Inside each vessel, canisters of treated radioactive waste will be cleaned of any radioactive contamination with acid that will etch off a fine layer from the exterior of the canister before it leaves the building.
WSU Tri-Cities to receive donated laboratory
WSU Tri-Cities to receive donated laboratory
Washington State University Tri-Cities is expected to get a new laboratory building, after EnergySolutions was awarded a Hanford subcontract.
Bechtel National announced Thursday that EnergySolutions Federal EPC of Richland was awarded a subcontract to build a facility for large-scale testing of the Hanford vitrification plant's waste-mixing system and to perform the testing.
EnergySolutions will be teaming with NuVision to build a laboratory for the testing and plans to donate it to WSU Tri-Cities, said Tom Yount, vice president of EnergySolutions' engineering technology group.
Vit plant mixing system raises concerns
Vit plant mixing system raises concerns
LOS ANGELES -- The mixing system planned for the Hanford vitrification plant's high-level radioactive waste could wear out in only a few months rather than last the 40-year lifetime of the plant, according to a union official and Department of Energy documents obtained by Hanford Challenge.
Despite the concerns raised in the documents, DOE gave Bechtel National, its contractor for the vit plant, the go ahead to complete fabrication of the tanks that use the mixing system, according to Hanford Challenge.
A federal engineering review team found in late July that Bechtel's safety evaluation of key equipment at the $12.2 billion plant was incomplete and that "the risks are more serious" than Bechtel acknowledged when it sought approval to continue with construction, the documents say.
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