Bechtel National (BNI) has met a contract milestone in construction of the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant worth an incentive fee of $4.275 million, the company and the Department of Energy announced Tuesday.
The milestone was for electrical work at the plant’s Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility, with bulk cable electrical installation completed nearly four months ahead of schedule, according to Bechtel. When construction is complete, the Low-Activity Waste Facility will feature roughly 210 linear miles of electrical raceway, cables, and wiring.
“This milestone sets the stage for our workforce to meet the LAW physical plant complete contract milestone of June 2018,” said Brian Reilly, Bechtel project director for the Waste Treatment Plant. The Energy Department aims to begin treating Hanford’s low-activity radioactive waste at the Waste Treatment Plant in 2022, with full operation of the plant, including treatment of high-level radioactive waste, required by 2036 under a federal court order.
“The milestone for bulk cable installation, referred to as ‘wire pulls’, required BNI to complete installation of all scheduled power, control, instrumentation and fiber optic cables, including all cable tray and raceway systems,” said Bill Hamel, DOE federal project manager.
Reilly said meeting the milestone required balancing a complex design, purchasing quality materials to the right specifications, skilled planning of construction work, and quality craftsmanship.
The Waste Treatment Plant will convert up to 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste stored at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state into a solid glass form for permanent storage. Construction began in 2001, and the project is now expected to cost nearly $17 million.
