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 Plant 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. The project has about 20 openings now with Bechtel or its primary subcontractor for the nearly $17 billion project, AECOM. Present and future job openings will be posted at the Hanford vit plant website, under the Careers tab.
Bechtel led off the calendar year with an announcement that startup testing had begun at the two major facilities needed for treating low-activity waste: the Low-Activity Waste Facility and the Analytical Laboratory. Earlier this month, the company announced that the Analytical Laboratory had been fully energized, the first of the plant’s four main facilities to reach that milestone. Electricity in the facility is self-contained and flowing through all lights, panels, and outlets, Bechtel said. Permanent power allows employees to begin testing laboratory equipment.
The plant’s 65-acre campus also will have about 20 support facilities, with startup testing of systems for several of the utility support buildings completed in July. They include the Water Treatment Building, the Main Site Electrical Switchgear Building, the Balance of Facilities Electrical Switchgear Building, the Fire Water Pump House, and the Non-Radioactive Liquid Waste Disposal Facility.
