High-Level & Tank Waste

Having workers use supplied air respirators with lines that snake across the ground rather than heavy air tanks could be an option for certain tasks at the Hanford Site’s radioactive waste storage tank farms, according to tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions. Workers have been testing use of air lines, including at the HAMMER […]

Having workers use supplied air respirators with air lines that snake across the ground rather than heavy air tanks could be an option for some limited tasks at the Hanford Site’s radioactive waste storage tank farms, according to tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions. Workers have been testing use of air lines, including at […]

A key piece of equipment needed for liquid waste disposal at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has successfully been replaced, but the yearlong outage of liquid waste processing remains in effect, the Department of Energy said Tuesday. Melter 3 is in place and operational as of Dec. 29, when it began pouring treated […]

A key piece of equipment needed for liquid waste disposal at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina has successfully been replaced, the Department of Energy said Tuesday. Melter 3 is in place and operational as of Dec. 29, when it began pouring treated waste into a storage canister, SRS said. The Energy Department reported […]

Terry Reagan has been named Bechtel National’s chief of staff for the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Reagan replaces Dave Norwood, who moved to another assignment with Bechtel. Reagan joined Bechtel at Hanford in 2010 as a project controls engineer. He most recently served as […]

The Department of Energy plans to close the Hanford Site’s waste storage Tank AY-102, which developed a slow leak from its inner shell into the space between its shells. Tank AY-102 was the first of 28 double-shell tanks built at the Energy Department site in Washington state, leaving 27 in service to hold waste emptied […]

Changes must be made to Hanford Site’s Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility (WESF) to support moving 1,936 capsules of cesium and strontium out of underwater storage at the facility to dry storage nearby. The Department of Energy released more information about the project as it pursues a related modification to the dangerous waste portion of the […]

Bechtel National is assigning a new project director for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) it is building at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state as it moves toward a new phase of work, the partial startup of waste treatment as soon as 2022. Peggy McCullough, the contractor’s current WTP project director, told plant […]

The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) has agreed to ease the respiratory protection required for workers in a second waste storage tank farm at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Jeff McDaniel, elected president of the umbrella group for 15 Hanford labor unions in March, approved the decision. The move indicates […]

A particulate filter developed to survive the tough conditions and stringent demands at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant could have applications across the Department of Energy nuclear complex, according to Hanford officials. The filters were developed after initial testing showed that standard high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters used across the nuclear industry would not […]

Peggy McCullough, who Bechtel announced Friday would be leaving her post as project director at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, will be replacing John Howanitz as head of the company’s Nuclear Security, and Operations business based in Virginia. Bechtel said Friday that Brian Reilly, who like McCullough […]

The Hanford Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) will have a new Bechtel National project director as it moves toward the partial startup of waste treatment as soon as 2022. Peggy McCullough, the current project director for the contractor, told plant staff Friday that she is taking a new assignment to lead Bechtel’s Nuclear Security and Operations […]

The Department of Energy plans to grout the second PUREX Plant waste tunnel at the Hanford Site in Washington state, just as it did the first tunnel after it was discovered partially collapsed May 9. The Washington state Department of Ecology had ordered DOE to by Dec. 8 propose a stabilization plan for the second […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has slated a Dec. 7 public meeting on changes to the dangerous waste permit sought by contractor Bechtel National for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) being built at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Bechtel is seeking a Class 2 modification to its existing permit from the […]

Waste appears to have been emptied to regulatory standards at the first Hanford tank farm, should tests show work has been adequate. Washington River Protection Solutions has used three technologies to their limit, to empty the 16th and final tank in the C Tank Farm. Regulatory requirements require that either three technologies be used to […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Monday completed filling with grout the PUREX Plant tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed on May 9. The tunnel holds eight railcars loaded with highly radioactively contaminated equipment from the shuttered plutonium extraction plant. “Since a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed last […]

Workers at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state on Monday completed filling with grout the PUREX Plant tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed on May 9. The tunnel holds eight railcars loaded with highly radioactively contaminated equipment from the shuttered plutonium extraction plant. “Since a portion of the tunnel’s roof collapsed last […]

No decisions were made about possible ways to speed up certain cleanup operations at the Hanford Site during a meeting Thursday between top officials from the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management and the Washington state Department of Ecology. Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management (EM) James Owendoff met with Ecology Department Director Maia […]

A visual inspection of the Hanford Site’s oldest double-shell waste tank has found at least seven leaks from the inner shell. The Department of Energy confirmed in 2012 that Tank AY-102 had a slow leak from its inner shell into the space between its shells. No waste is believed to have breached the outer shell […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has for the first time shipped tank waste off-site for treatment and disposal. Three gallons of low-activity radioactive waste were sent in October to a nearby Perma-Fix Environmental Services facility to be grouted. It is then expected to be sent for disposal at the Waste Control Specialists […]

The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has for the first time shipped tank waste off-site for treatment and disposal. Three gallons of low-activity radioactive waste were sent in October to a nearby Perm-Fix Environmental Services facility to be grouted. It is then expected to be sent for disposal at the Waste Control Specialists […]

The Washington River Protection Solutions’ (WRPS) project to empty a Hanford Site double-shell waste tank with an interior leak has been named the 2017 Project of the Year by the Project Management Institute. “Washington River Protection Solutions was able to establish and follow sound project management practices that allowed its challenging and potentially dangerous project […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has opened an investigation after being notified by the contractor for the Hanford Site’s waste tank farm that some liquid had been poured into the soil in central Hanford in August. The liquid was in four used containers that had sat out in the weather for a couple years […]

Two bidding groups have filed protests with the Government Accountability Office over the new contract for liquid waste management at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. One of the protests submitted on Tuesday was filed for the AECOM-CH2M Savannah River Technology and Remediation LLC by an attorney with the law firm […]

The Department of Energy has acknowledged that contractor Bechtel National has met all of the criteria required to resume construction on parts of the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant’s High-Level Waste Facility that have been on hold since 2012. However, DOE also pointed out in a statement Friday that its focus is on preparing to […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has opened an investigation after being notified by the contractor for the Hanford Site’s waste tank farm that some liquid had been poured into the soil in central Hanford in August. The liquid was in four used containers that had sat out in the weather for a couple years […]

The Salt Waste Processing Facility that has been built by Parsons Government Services at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina should be commissioned by the end of 2018. An article in the Oct. 20 edition of Weapons Complex Monitor misstated the timeline for commissioning. We regret the error.

A major waste treatment facility at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site as of this week remained in deliberate operations, more than four months after it was placed into the slowed work mode due to multiple safety-related incidents. Officials at the South Carolina facility did not respond to an inquiry regarding how much longer the situation […]

The Energy Department Office of Environmental Management (EM) on Friday was completing its debriefing sessions for teams that bid on the Savannah River Site liquid waste management contract, sources told Weapons Complex Monitor. The agency announced on Oct. 12 that Savannah River EcoManagement, a partnership of BWX Technologies, Bechtel National, and Honeywell International, had won […]

A major waste treatment facility at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site as of this week remained in deliberate operations, more than four months after it was placed into the slowed work mode due to multiple safety-related incidents. Officials at the South Carolina facility did not respond to an inquiry regarding how much longer the situation […]