Bechtel National expects in the next few months to fill up to 300 jobs at the Waste Treatment Plant it is building at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
The hiring comes as the contractor continues to shift from primarily construction to preparations for waste processing by a federal court-enforced deadline of 2023, if not earlier. It also comes as the Energy Department has started a fiscal year with an appropriations bill signed into law for the first time in at least eight years, giving contractors more funding certainty early in the budget cycle. Fiscal 2019 began on Oct. 1.
“We continue to make significant progress toward completing portions of the vit plant for the direct feed low-activity waste (DFLAW approach),” said Bechtel spokesman George Rangel. “As the DFLAW work scope continues the shift into the startup, testing and commissioning phase, more positions are being hired to support the work.” Work also is resuming on the design of the WTP’s High-Level Waste Facility, he said.
Fifty-six million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste are stored in underground tanks at Hanford, left behind by the site’s prior history of plutonium production for U.S. nuclear weapons. The Waste Treatment will convert much of that material into a glass form for permanent disposal.
Due to technical issues identified in 2012 on the parts of the plant that will treat high-level radioactive waste, the Energy Department plans to begin processing with low-activity radioactive waste. The plant is not required to start full operations, including both the Pretreatment Facility and High-Level Waste Facility, until 2036.
Bechtel plans to fill engineering jobs, including workers with expertise in electrical, nuclear, and systems engineering. Workers also will be hired for procurement and subcontract work, including supplier quality, purchasing, and subcontract administration, and for startup operations. Present and future job openings will be posted at the Hanford vit plant website, under the Careers tab.
There are currently about 2,800 workers at the plant.
