The Department of Energy has approved the documented safety analysis required for hot commissioning of the Low-Activity Waste Facility at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant. Completion of the 7,000-page document is a required milestone for plant contractor Bechtel National, worth up to $6.65 million in fees.
Bechtel National nuclear safety engineers spent three years identifying the potential hazards associated with treating low-activity radioactive waste and developing the processes and controls needed to address the hazards and protect the public, workers, and the environment. The safety analysis covers both radiological and other chemical hazards.
“This provides a benchmark for our safety oversight in preparing for hot commissioning of the LAW (Low Activity Waste) Facility,” Brian Vance, manager of the DOE Hanford Office of River Protection, said in a news release. Following an independent review, his office signed off on the safety analysis, a federal requirement for setting rules for safety controls at DOE nuclear facilities.
“This is the start of the transition we’ll make … to an operating nuclear facility,” Vance added. “That’s not been done at Hanford for a very, very long time.”
The Low-Activity Waste Facility will treat a portion of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste stored in underground tanks at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state. Ninety percent of the waste is estimated to be low-activity material.
Bechtel expects to proceed from construction to startup this summer, said Brian Reilly, the company’s project manager for the Waste Treatment Plant.
Bechtel will use the safety analysis over the next several years in preparing to bring the Low-Activity Waste Facility online in the process called hot commissioning. The analysis will be used as procedures are developed, the workforce is trained and qualified, and the plant prepared.
The Energy Department faces a federal court-enforced milestone to start treating low-activity waste treatment by 2023 but aims to begin vitrification – converting the material into a glass form for disposal — by the end of 2021.
