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.
