The U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology are taking public comments through Sept. 16 on a proposed change to the dangerous waste permit for the Hanford Site.
If approved, the state permit modification would allow DOE to connect a backup waste transfer line from the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant’s Effluent Management Facility to an existing transfer line between the 242-A Evaporator and the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility.
The change would allow waste from the Effluent Management Facility (EMF) to be transferred to the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility.
Bechtel National is building the $17 billion Waste Treatment Plant to convert Hanford radioactive tank waste into a stable glass-like substance for disposal. The EMF is being built to help in sending low-activity waste from underground tanks directly to the low-activity waste vitrification facility at the plant. The Effluent Management Facility is the last major construction project for the WTP, according to DOE.
The Liquid Effluent Retention Facility, located near the center of the Hanford Site, has three liquid storage basins designed to hold about 23 million gallons of material. Built in 1977 to support defense-related production of material for nuclear weapons, the 242-A Evaporator’s current mission focuses on reducing the volume of liquid waste stored in the tank farms.
The change is sought by DOE and its tank waste contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions. Comments can be sent by email via this link.
A public meeting on the permit modification is set for Aug. 27 at the Richland, Wash., public library.
Honeywell, the parent company of several Department of Energy site-management contractors, posted an annual increase in sales and profits in the second quarter, after accounting for businesses the company spun off in the last year.
Net income rose to $1.5 billion from $1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2018, while sales fell 15% to some $9.2 billion from almost $11 billion a year ago, Honeywell reported last week. However, excluding the 2018 results of the now-spun-off, Transportation Systems and the Homes and ADI Global Distribution businesses, company-wide sales rose 5%.
Honeywell is the owner or partner in contractors that manage four Department of Energy facilities:
- Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, a Honeywell subsidiary at the Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri ($10 billion over 10 years, with options);
- National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, a Honeywell subsidiary at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico ($2.6 billion over 10 years, with options);
- Mission Support and Test Services, a Honeywell-majority team with Jacobs and Huntington Ingalls at the Nevada National Security Site ($5 billion over 10 years, with options); and
- Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, a Honeywell-minority team with Fluor and Huntington Ingalls at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina ($10.5 billion over 11 years, with options). The DOE Environmental Management office owns this contract, and last week issued a $1.5 billion extension that will keep SRNS on the job through Sept. 30, 2020. Two one-year options are also possible.
