Bechtel Making Progress at Melters of WTP’s Low-Activity Waste Facility
WC Monitor
3/27/2015
Bechtel National workers have finished placing refractory in the two 300-ton melters at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility. Refractory is the fire- and heat-resistant brick that lines the inside of the melters, which will heat liquid radioactive waste and glass-forming materials to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. The molten slurry in the melters will be poured into containers, where it will be allowed to cool and solidify before the containers are buried at Hanford’s Integrated Disposal Facility.
The Low Activity Waste Facility contains two melters with the capacity to fill four and a half waste canisters per day after the facility begins glassifying waste. Each container is 7 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter and will hold seven tons of glass. Work still must be done to complete refractory placement in the melter lids, then place the lids on the melters. The waste processing melters, considered the heart of the waste vitrification process, will be the largest in the world once the facility is finished.
