Bechtel National: Progress made on Low-Activity Waste Facility in 2015
In 2015, Bechtel and its subcontractors made substantial progress on the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, better known as the WTP. We’re focused on completing our mission to treat and dispose of the radioactive liquid created while producing plutonium for World War II and the Cold War.
Once completed, the WTP will solidify radioactive liquid waste in the tanks using a process known as vitrification.
Our major focus in 2015 was on two important tasks:
▪ Completing construction of the facilities and infrastructure necessary to support the Department of Energy’s sequenced approach to treating the waste.
▪ Ensuring the WTP will operate safely and efficiently, protecting people and the environment
This past year, we made excellent progress on construction. In accordance with DOE’s sequenced approach to cleanup, we’re making changes that will allow us to treat the less radioactive low-activity waste, which accounts for 80 percent to 90 percent of the volume of waste in the underground tanks at Hanford. Then, we’ll turn our focus to the more complicated high-level radioactive waste.
We’re doing our part to clean up Hanford as quickly and safely as possible.
Low-Activity Waste Facility progress
Originally, treatment of high-level and low-activity waste was to occur simultaneously. Under DOE’s new approach, we’ll finish the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility first and begin treating the low-activity waste as soon as 2022. The new approach is called Direct Feed LAW.
At the LAW Facility, low-activity waste mixed with glass-forming materials will be heated to 2,100 degrees in the melters, poured into stainless steel containers, cooled and disposed of on the Hanford Site.
To accommodate Direct Feed LAW, we’ll be constructing new piping to transfer low-activity waste from the tank farm to the LAW Facility and provide for the treatment of LAW Facility off-gases and effluents that were to be recycled to the WTP Pretreatment Facility for processing.
The design modification efforts are more than 30 percent complete for the facilities and processes needed for Direct Feed LAW.
Related to this, we’re also focusing on installation of equipment in the LAW Facility. Workers completed placement of insulating material in the two 300-ton waste glass melters. Work also is nearing completion on a major component in the LAW Facility off-gas treatment system. Once completed, the system will undergo testing at the fabricator’s facility before installation.
Construction focus at the Analytical Laboratory, another of the WTP’s four major facilities, has moved toward outfitting the laboratory with equipment and fixtures before turning the facility over to the startup group, which will ensure all systems are working properly.
Construction was also completed on several of the plant’s infrastructure systems. All major systems in two electrical switchgear facilities and a nonradioactive liquid waste disposal facility were transitioned from the WTP construction group to the startup group.
At the High-Level Waste (HLW) Facility, workers completed 22 concrete placements for walls and floors in the nearly 600,000-square-foot facility.
Focused on quality, safety
Finally, our goal is to safely build a WTP today that operates safely and efficiently in the future.
In 2015, the WTP construction site received DOE’s highest safety award, the Voluntary Protection Program’s Star of Excellence. Additionally, 2015 was the safest year in the project’s 15-year history.
Equally important as protecting workers while the plant is being built is ensuring that workers, the public and the environment are protected once the plant begins operations. We’ve taken great measures to ensure it will operate safely.
Economic benefits
The WTP supports the regional economy with nearly $111 million in subcontracts awarded in 2015 to businesses in Washington and Oregon. Of that, about $90 million went to businesses in Benton and Franklin counties. Our subcontractors and vendors are an extended and important part of the WTP team. We appreciate their support.
In the end, all of these efforts will ensure that we are building a plant that will safely and efficiently treat millions of gallons of liquid waste stored in Hanford’s 177 underground tanks and, ultimately, ensure the protection of our community and our environment.
There are nearly 3,000 WTP employees who are proud to live in this community. We are committed to the DOE’s Hanford mission to safely process tank waste and make this community — our home — cleaner and safer.
Please visit www.hanfordvitplant.com for more information about the Vit Plant and the vitrification process or to subscribe to our newsletter.
This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 10:33 PM with the headline "Bechtel National: Progress made on Low-Activity Waste Facility in 2015."