Effective this week, BWX Technologies-led Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) is taking over as the contractor in charge of about 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive and chemical waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
“H2C leads the nation’s largest and most complex radioactive waste cleanup, including closure of the legacy waste tanks at Hanford,” according to a statement on the joint venture’s website. The new joint venture, which will be carrying out a contract worth up to $45 billion for up to 15 years, takes over from Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions. The outgoing contractor has overseen the tank waste for 15 years.
The H2C partners are BWXT, Amentum and Fluor. The three parent companies are joined by four teaming subcontractors: dss+; DBD, Inc.; Longenecker and Associates, Inc.; and INTERA.
The new team received its notice to start transition in October following a protracted legal challenge.
“We are about to make history in the grandest sense,” H2C President and Program Manager Carol Johnson said in a three-minute video on the website., H2C will operate portions of the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant.
The vitrification plant, as it is known, is expected to start converting some of the less-radioactive tank waste into glass-like logs in August.
