Atkins Nuclear Secured Holdings has won a 13-month extension to its ongoing research contract for the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
The SNC-Lavalin Group subsidiary said Monday it is providing technology support testing for the Hanford Office of River Protection in preparation for vitrification of low-activity radioactive waste at the Waste Treatment Plant by 2023. The extension means Atkins will stay on the job through Dec. 30, 2020, under the latest continuation of work dating to 2003.
The current contract began in November 2016, according to an Atkins spokeswoman.
The extension is valued at roughly $1.5 million, the Energy Department said in a notice of intent for sole-source procurement published Aug. 13 on the Federal Business Opportunities website.
The work is actually being done on the other side of the country, at the Vitreous State Laboratory of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The research and development facility focuses on the study of glass, and since the 1970s it has devoted a significant amount of research toward vitrification in nuclear waste management, according to the university. The laboratory has a longstanding partnership with Atkins.
The contracted work involves iodine removal and cesium technetium volatility for direct feed low-activity waste, according to the Energy Department notice.
The nearly complete Waste Treatment Plant being built by Bechtel will convert much of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste in Hanford’s underground tanks into a stable glass form for disposal.
“We have been working with the VSL for over 40 years now, and we are proud to be providing advanced technological solutions to the world’s most challenging radioactive waste cleanup projects,” Atkins Nuclear Secured President Tom Jouvanis said in the Monday press release.
The U.S. Energy Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have extended the public comment period from 30 days to 60 days for the next stage of remediation of the 100-BC Area of the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The agencies said in a Monday email announcement they are pushing back the comment deadline from Nov. 6 to Dec. 9.
The 4.5-square-mile area extends along the Columbia River corridor and was home to two now-retired nuclear reactors that made plutonium from World War II through the 1960s. The reactor operations resulted in soil and groundwater contaminated with radionuclides and chemicals, according to DOE.
The majority of remediation at in the area has been completed, as DOE and its contractors have demolished most buildings around 100-BC and remediated 82 contamination sites. About 3 million tons of debris and soil were removed from the site since 1995, according to the agency.
The chief remediation chore left is addressing a sodium dichromate transfer pipeline that connected the B and C reactor areas. A 55-foot long segment of pipeline was previously grouted and left in place. The Energy Department’s preferred alternative under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) is removal of the pipe, which would cost roughly $23 million.
The Energy Department and EPA will examine the comments prior to issuing a record of decision laying out the ultimate approach to remediation. The ROD schedule will be determined by the amount of time needed to go through the comments, officials said.
Comments can be submitted via email to [email protected].
One local mayor is throwing his support behind the Department of Energy’s recent move to consolidate operations at the Hanford Site in Washington state under one manager.
“It’s the natural evolution of things,” Richland Mayor Bob Thompson said in a telephone interview.
He spoke a week after Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced that Brian Vance would serve as full-time manager for both the Richland Operations Office and Office of River Protection at Hanford. Vance, who has headed River Protection since 2017, became acting manager for the other Hanford office in February after the retirement of its manager, Doug Shoop.
Given ongoing progress on remediation at Hanford, such as the September completion of the K-Basin sludge transfer, it makes sense to have everyone at the 586-square-mile site under one boss, Thompson said. Hanford crews in September completed removal of highly radioactive sludge from underwater storage in the K West Reactor basin and relocation to the T plant for underground storage.
The scope of the remediation is gradually becoming smaller so it is logical to have one manager in charge of it all, said Thompson, a Richland City Council member since the 1990s who served as mayor between 2000 and 2004, and from 2015 until the present.
Hanford operations were divided into separate offices in 1998 through language placed into that year’s National Defense Authorization Act by then-Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), whose congressional district included the site. The River Protection office was established to increase focus on the 56 million gallons of radioactive tank waste at Hanford, while the Richland Operations Office retained oversight of remediation of the former plutonium production complex.
The dual office setup was also created to attract more funding to Hanford, and it has largely been successful, Thompson said. The two offices’ combined funding exceeded $2.43 billion in fiscal 2019. The two offices will remain separate for budget and administrative purposes at least until 2024, thanks to a provision in the 2019 NDAA inserted by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who succeeded Hastings.
