High-Level & Tank Waste

Bechtel National and its primary subcontractor, AECOM, have created a new company for on-site work at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP). Bechtel National remains the prime contractor for the WTP project and has total responsibility for delivering the vitrification plant to the Department of Energy, said Peggy McCullough, the company’s project director, in […]

Roughly 26,000 gallons of waste remains to be extracted from Tank AY-102 at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Energy’s waste contractor for the former plutonium production facility said Friday. Washington River Protection Solutions on March 3, 2016, began retrieving the estimated 800,000 gallons of liquid and sludge from the double-shell tank, where […]

  The Department of Energy said it has made significant progress in resolving technical issues that have slowed progress on construction of the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant since 2012. DOE’s Office of River Protection has sent letters describing resolution of three of the eight technical issues to the agency headquarters, where they are being […]

A waste disposal project at the Savannah River Site took another step forward recently when the facility’s liquid waste contractor conducted a successful leak tightness test for Saltstone Disposal Unit 6 (SDU 6). SDU 6 is the first 30-million gallon, megavolume salt waste disposal concrete unit constructed at the Department of Energy site in South […]

Hanford Site tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) received 77 percent of the award fee available for fiscal 2016, down from 88 percent for the previous budget year, according to a Department of Energy scorecard. “WRPS performed adequately through a turbulent year, but there were times when substantial ORP [DOE Office of River […]

A waste disposal project at the Savannah River Site took another step forward recently when the facility’s liquid waste contractor conducted a successful leak tightness test for Saltstone Disposal Unit 6 (SDU 6). SDU 6 is the first 30-million gallon, megavolume salt waste disposal unit constructed at the Department of Energy site in South Carolina. Once complete, […]

Hanford Site tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) received 77 percent of the award fee available for fiscal 2016, down from 88 percent for the previous budget year, according to a Department of Energy scorecard. “WRPS performed adequately through a turbulent year, but there were times when substantial ORP [DOE Office of River Protection] […]

It will take somewhere between nine months and a year longer than hoped to get 27 new sensors for the Hanford Site’s double-shell waste storage tanks in working order, the Energy Department disclosed last week. DOE was supposed to have the sensors inside the annulus of Hanford’s 28 double-shell tanks working by December 2016, per a […]

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has resumed work to empty waste from Hanford Site Tank AY-102 as it faces a March 4, 2017, retrieval deadline under a settlement agreement with Washington state. The Department of Energy’s Hanford tank farm contractor halted work on the tank leaking waste between its two shells this spring to change out […]

A new $3 billion modification for the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant project makes clear the Energy Department and contractor Bechtel National intend to meet their 2022 schedule for beginning liquid-waste treatment, without closing the door on a legally authorized delay into 2023. For years, Bechtel and DOE have said the facility the company is building […]

Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has resumed work to empty waste from Hanford Site Tank AY-102 as it faces a March 4, 2017, retrieval deadline under a settlement agreement with Washington state. The Department of Energy’s Hanford tank farm contractor halted work on the double-shell tank leaking waste between its shells this spring to change out […]

Bechtel National can at last start work that could allow the Waste Treatment Plant it is building to by 2022 start processing 56 million gallons of Cold War-era liquid waste stored at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Energy Department announced late Friday. The update came in the form of a contract modification DOE and its […]

Bechtel National defended its progress on construction of the crucial Waste Treatment Plant at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state following a Tuesday Twitter strike from a local nuclear watchdog. The sharply critical Hanford Challenge on Tuesday chided Bechtel for earning a “failing grade” on its work on the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) in […]

  Testing and commissioning of the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is 36 percent complete, and the plant remains on pace to start-up by December 2018, an Energy Department official said this week. Following more than a year of high-stakes negotiations starting in September 2015, the Energy Department and the South Carolina […]

Costs will soar and deadlines will go unmet at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., if workers there keep wearing gear to protect them from noxious fumes leaking from underground waste tanks, the Energy Department and its tank-farm contractor said this week. In documents published Wednesday, the AECOM-led Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) estimated the cost of […]

Sixteen single-shell tanks built to hold liquid radioactive waste at the Energy Department’s Hanford site near Richland, Wash., will not be closed in 2019 as once scheduled, under a tentative agreement finalized last week. These underground tanks in Hanford’s Waste Management Area C have been emptied but must still be either removed from the site, […]

Stricter safety measures for workers mean the Energy Department will likely blow deadlines to drain radioactive waste from tanks at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., over the next four to eight years, an official with the agency’s Office of River Protection said Wednesday. Schedule pressure resulted from “inefficiencies we’re seeing because of a number […]

Sixteen single-shelled tanks built to hold liquid radioactive waste at the Energy Department’s Hanford site near Richland, Wash., will not be closed in 2019 as once scheduled, under a tentative agreement finalized late last week. These underground tanks in Hanford’s Waste Management Area C have been emptied but must still be either removed from the […]

The Washington state Ecology Department on Monday opened a 60-day public comment period for locals to weigh in on a permit modification Bechtel National and the Energy Department need to start treating radioactive waste at the Hanford Site as soon as 2022. If granted, the modification will smooth the way for Bechtel, prime contractor on the […]

Energy Department contractors Bechtel and AECOM will pay a combined $125 million to settle allegations that they spent federal dollars on non-nuclear-certified parts and services for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the U.S. Justice Department announced late Nov. 23. Bechtel’s payment also covers claims that it improperly used federal funds for lobbying purposes. […]

The Washington state Ecology Department on Monday opened a 60-day public comment period for locals to weigh in on a permit modification Bechtel National and the Energy Department need to start treating radioactive waste at the Hanford Site as soon as 2022. If granted, the modification will smooth the way for Bechtel, prime contractor on the […]

Energy Department contractors Bechtel and AECOM will pay a combined $125 million to settle allegations that they spent federal dollars on non-nuclear-certified parts and services for the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the U.S. Justice Department announced late Wednesday. Bechtel’s fine also covers claims that it improperly used federal funds for lobbying purposes.  […]

The Energy Department expects this year to finalize contract modifications necessary to begin treatment of the Hanford Site’s liquid waste by 2022, according to a monthly report filed with regulators in Washington state and Oregon. Negotiations with contractor Bechtel National “have been ongoing and are expected to be completed by the end of the calendar […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Friday it is is partnering with Waste Control Specialists in its program to enter the market for treatment of high-level radioactive waste. The Atlanta-based nuclear services specialist, which already provides treatment of low-level and mixed waste, this year plans to complete a demonstration test involving processing up to 5 gallons of high-level waste from […]

The last major piece of equipment for the Hanford Site Waste Treatment Plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility arrived this week and was placed in the plant. The facility over the summer received two of the three major components of melter off-gas system. The final component of the system to arrive was the caustic scrubber manufactured by […]

Twenty workers at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site will swap badges to Savannah River Remediation from Parsons to ensure liquid waste treatment at the Salt Waste Processing Facility begins around 2019, as scheduled. The AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) “recently chose to hire 20 Radiological Protection Inspectors through Parsons, the SWPF [Salt Waste Processing […]

Twenty workers at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site will swap badges to Savannah River Remediation from Parsons to ensure liquid waste treatment at the Salt Waste Processing Facility begins around 2019, as scheduled. The AECOM-led Savannah River Remediation (SRR) “recently chose to hire 20 Radiological Protection Inspectors through Parsons, the SWPF [Salt Waste Processing […]

Plans for a Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System (LAWPS) at the Hanford Site in Washington state will be discussed during a public meeting scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. meeting today (Nov. 14) at the Richland Public Library. The Department of Energy will explain LAWPS’ role in treating Hanford tank waste, and the Washington state Department of […]

Nuclear cleanup veteran John Eschenberg will take charge of salt waste disposition at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site for liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation, parent company AECOM announced Thursday. In his new position, Eschenberg  will “focus on Salt Waste Processing Facility integration and new technology demonstration for tank cesium removal,” AECOM spokesman […]

Hanford Site cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. has sealed a subcontract for construction of storage containers to hold cesium and strontium capsules. Georgia-based nuclear materials services provider NAC International has received a $23 million contract to design and build 16 dry storage casks that will hold 1,936 highly radioactive cesium and strontium capsules now […]