The U.S. Energy Department and contractor Bechtel National reached a key milestone this week toward operation of the $17 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The company and DOE’s Office of River Protection held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday to mark the start of testing on equipment within an annex connected to a facility where low-activity nuclear waste from Hanford’s underground tanks will be converted into a stable glass form for storage and disposal.
Among other things, the 20,000-square-foot, two-story annex houses the control room for the Low-Activity Waste Facility, Bechtel and the Energy Department said in a press release late Monday.
“The control room is the operations center of the Low-Activity Waste Facility,” said Brian Vance, DOE Hanford Site manager in the press release. “By moving into the annex, we have the capability to monitor and control completed systems inside the 14 support buildings called the Balance of Facilities.” The control room is also used for startup and testing for the Low-Activity Waste Facility and Analytical Laboratory.
Bechtel and DOE are under a court order to start turning low-activity waste from some of Hanford’s 177 underground tanks into glass by 2023. The tanks hold 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production.
“We are getting closer to making low-activity waste glass,” said Valerie McCain, Bechtel’s project director for the WTP said in the press release. “It also allows the commissioning team to be in a single, central location for daily work activities.”
Seventy-two of the Low-Activity Waste Facility’s 92 systems are already being tested to confirm they are complete and in safe working order. Some of the key areas include the vitrification process, mechanical handling, utility, and air supply systems. After the startup phase, systems undergo commissioning to ensure they are ready to support WTP operations by 2023.
Construction is largely complete for the Low-Activity Waste Facility, the Analytical Laboratory, and support buildings, according to DOE and Bechtel.
