A new Department of Energy prime contractor for liquid waste should take over Feb. 23 at Hanford Site in Washington state, the DOE manager for the nuclear cleanup property said Wednesday.
The transition to BWX Technologies-led Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) from Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) is nearly finished, DOE Site Manager Brian Vance told a Hanford Advisory Board meeting. Vance also reviewed some big infrastructure projects at Hanford.
H2C has a $45-billion contract to manage the 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste held in underground tanks at the former plutonium production complex. In response to a question, Vance said H2C will take over the WRPS website on protecting workers from chemical vapors at Hanford.
As part of the contract, the team of BWXT, Fluor and Amentum will eventually take over operation of the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. That plant is scheduled to start turning some of the least-radioactive liquid waste into glass form by August.
Plant managers are starting to implement radiological control programs to help get workers develop the right mindset for when hot operations begin, Vance said.
When it comes to infrastructure, Vance said construction of a new water treatment plant to replace “our 1943 water plant” should be finished next month. The new plant should come online several months after that, he added.
A new electric line built by the Bonneville Power Administration to serve the Waste Treatment Plant and other facilities, should be energized in March, Vance said.
Hanford construction crews should break ground later this year on a new fire station for the nuclear site, Vance said.
The roughly 2,000-gallon of Hanford tank waste pretreated as part of the Test Bed Initiative in 2024 will be shipped out this spring when the weather is warmer, Vance said. The site manager said the waste in its current form is relatively “benign” and meets disposal criteria for both Waste Control Specialists in Texas and EnergySolutions in Utah.
