Bechtel National: Transformational year prepares Vit Plant for hot commissioning

The Vit Plant has entered this new decade looking different than ever before because of significant progress made in 2019 toward commissioning facilities and systems that will start to vitrify waste in the next three years. Last year, our team of 3,000 workers built incredible momentum toward treating Hanford’s tank waste as part of the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste program when they:

• Finished engineering design, closing out the design phase of the project;

• Completed all startup and testing activities in the 14 structures that are the utility backbone of the plant;

• Moved scientific instrumentation and chemists into the Analytical Laboratory to develop the methods required to ensure waste that is vitrified — immobilized in glass — meets disposal requirements;

• Opened the control room and annex in the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility that will vitrify the waste and welcomed technicians who are bringing systems online to start treating waste by the end of 2023;

• Completed startup and testing of more than 90 percent of the systems inside the LAW Facility;

• Constructed major portions of the Effluent Management Facility (EMF) that will treat secondary waste from vitrification and began testing systems; and

• Closed all legacy quality issues through a collaborative approach with the Department of Energy (DOE).

For the first time ever, major facilities are in the final stage of the project – commissioning.

Since this time last year, more of the Vit Plant, or Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, job site looks like a facility that is ready to operate. We are grading the site and paving roads. New team members who will operate the facility for the long term work 24/7 shifts, and the skyline has changed with the new roofline of the EMF.

Our team, led by Bechtel National Inc., collaborates closely with DOE, the Washington State Department of Ecology and other Hanford contractors to ensure we deliver significant progress safely and with quality. We draw on the expertise of the local business community to drive progress, and in fiscal year 2019, some $67 million of the $145 million spent on goods and services was spent in Washington and Oregon, with $39 million spent in the Tri-Cities.

We are well positioned for another transformation year in 2020, with all of our activities driving toward spring 2021 when we will heat up the first melter inside the LAW Facility:

In 2020, we will:

• Complete startup testing of all LAW systems required for melter heat-up

• Receive the first containers that will hold the vitrified waste

• Complete all remaining construction in the LAW and in the Effluent Management Facility

• Complete all remaining startup testing of the 14 support facilities

• Continue to prepare our workforce for commissioning and eventual sustained operations. It is an exciting time to work at the Vit Plant and at Hanford. Our outstanding team of skilled craft and professionals are making history — completing the plant that will clean up Hanford’s legacy waste. We, along with DOE and our fellow Hanford contractors, are committed to the mission and protecting the area we call home.

I look forward to celebrating our accomplishments in the coming year.

This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Bechtel National: Transformational year prepares Vit Plant for hot commissioning."