Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
5/30/2014
Demolition of the West Valley Main Plant Process Building won’t be done by the current end of CH2M Hill B&W West Valley’s contract in 2019 as originally expected, and the contractor is working with the Department of Energy on an extension, CHBWV President Dan Coyne told WC Monitor this week. The delay, according to Coyne, is due to a combination of limited funding and additional scope that was added after the 2011 contract award. Originally the main plant demolition was expected to be completed by the April 2019 end of CHBWV’s contract. “We are very close to getting contract alignment here where all the contract mods are in the contract. That more than likely will push the contract out into early 2020,” Coyne said. “I don’t want to speculate because these contract mods are up with the Department being reviewed right now. … But there will be one more schedule shift as a result of that mod.”
‘Any Time You Add a Dollar it Pushes the Schedule Out’
CHBWV is undertaking the D&D project at the western New York former reprocessing facility, with a primary goal being demolition of the main plant building. However, material differences found after the contractor arrived on site led to contract modifications completed earlier this year that increased the contract value by about $90 million. Those differences involve both waste that needed to be repackaged because it didn’t meet acceptance criteria as well as some D&D work.
With a funding profile limited to $60 million per year, the schedule had to be pushed out, Coyne said. “If you add any scope into that through contract mods, [when] your limiting factor is $60 million per year it invariably pushes the schedule to the right,” he said. “You add those contract mods, any time you add a dollar it pushes the schedule out a dollar-plus because of hotel loads.” DOE did not provide information on the contract modifications and demolition schedule this week when asked.
Preparations Continue for HLW Canister Removal
The contractor is currently focusing on preparing the main plant for demolition, which first involves the removal of 278 high-level waste canisters. CHBWV last fall completed construction of a 110-by-144 foot pad with three-foot thick concrete where the canisters will be stored while demo takes place. DOE West Valley Director Bryan Bower said in a written response this week that CHBWV is “off to a good start.” He added: “The work took tremendous coordination, and we were able to install the storage pad in two placements—with each placement requiring over 90 cement trucks. CHBWV was able to accomplish this with no safety issues—not even a first aid. In the early winter, CHBWV completed the HLW Pad approach apron in three placements—each of similar magnitude as the HLW Pad—again with no incidents. This reflects the strong safety commitment from both CHBWV and Butler Construction.”
This year, procurements are taking place for the relocation. “We received our first piece of equipment, which is a tugger, which is used to tow the high-level waste canisters down to the pad,” Coyne said. “We’ve got several other procurements in process right now, including a welder, which is going to weld the lids. We’re working on the haul path.” By this time next year CHBWV expects to be “well into our process to relocate cans,” with a startup assessment in the spring and can relocation beginning in the summer, Coyne said. The relocation is expected to take about three years. CHBWV now has eight vertical storage casks constructed, which will each fit about five canisters. Next month, eight canister overpacks will arrive on site.
Main Plant is Being Cleaned Out
At the same time, five crews are working on main plant deactivation activities to prepare the plant for D&D. That includes cleaning out the liquid waste cell and vitrification cell, extraction cells, the lab area and asbestos abatement. That work is part of balancing the workforce between high level waste, legacy waste and facility disposition while preparations for canister relocation are ongoing, Coyne said. “We have got good skilled workers that we want to maintain on staff because they are very knowledgeable on how the building runs and how to take apart the building. We’re just balancing whatever money we have for discretionary [work] that isn’t eaten up in hotel [costs] and maintaining all our programs so that we can keep the workforce when we move these milestones forward,” Coyne said, adding that he doesn’t anticipate any layoffs in the near term.
The site is also making plans for interim storage of non-defense transuranic waste until a disposal pathway is found, and is also hoping to soon ship a large vitrification melter and two big vitrification mixing tanks off site for disposal. “CHBWV has awarded the contracts for the transportation and the disposal. We are working through some transportation questions, but we still have a goal of shipping either late this year or early next year,” Bower said. He also noted progress being made on demolishing ancillary facilities. “So far this fiscal year, CHBWV has removed the Environmental Laboratory, the last of the Hazardous Waste Storage Lockers, the Bio-Vent Building, and a number of smaller buildings, foundations and trailers.”
‘Hardy People’ Able to Deal With Winter Conditions
The West Valley site also suffered below-average temperatures for six months and numerous snowstorms over the winter, but that did not greatly impact work, Coyne said. “We had a lot of snow. We are from western New York and we take pride in safely doing the work. We had no injuries associated with it and though we had a lot of snow but we poured a pad during the winter here,” he said. “There are hardy people here in western New York, and when we get a snow storm people come and do work. We spent a lot of time upgrading heating systems and dealing with the cold temperatures. But we persevered.”
