Vitrification & Grout

A redesigned version of the large screw-like component designed to break up chunks of solid waste in the troubled Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) in Idaho will undergo testing from November to January, the Energy Department announced Thursday. The so-called augur-grinder breaks up solid waste for processing in the IWTU, which was built by former […]

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 […]

There is still no timetable for starting up the officially delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho Site, but it will need a replacement part — which DOE has in stock — that will take up to three months to install, according to an agency briefing last week. DOE this week […]

There is still no timetable for starting up the officially delayed Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the Department of Energy’s Idaho Site, but it will need a replacement part — which DOE has in stock — that will take up to three months to install, according to an agency briefing last week. DOE this week […]

The Energy Department’s prime cleanup contractor on the former West Valley spent-fuel reprocessing facility in upstate New York on Wednesday shipped the first of three massive loads of contaminated vitrification equipment on its way to a private disposal facility in Texas. Lynette Bennett, a spokeswoman for CH2M Hill BWXT West Valley, confirmed Thursday the equipment […]

With the 2016 fiscal year in the rearview mirror, Bechtel National is looking ahead to finishing this fall a key gas-treatment system needed to start liquid-waste cleanup at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site as soon as 2022. Bechtel is designing a system dubbed Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) to take the less viscous, less radioactive […]

Twenty-eight canisters of vitrified highly active waste arrived in Cherbourg, France, on Monday as the shipment makes its way from the U.K. to Switzerland, French nuclear specialist AREVA announced Wednesday. The waste is the byproduct of reprocessing and recycling activity at the U.K.’s Sellafield site, where fuel from Swiss nuclear reactors was sent. The shipment falls […]

The electrical utility building that eventually will feed power to crucial liquid waste treatment systems at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., has been tied to its permanent electrical power source in what contractor Bechtel National said in a Thursday press release is “an important step toward operations.” Though announced Thursday, Building 87, […]

A permit that will allow Energy Department contractor Bechtel National to build a facility crucial to starting solidification of Cold War-era waste in Washington state by 2022 goes out for public comment next month, the state Ecology Department announced. “Ecology plans to start a 30-day public comment period in middle October on a proposed new […]

A permit that will allow Energy Department contractor Bechtel National to build a facility crucial to starting solidification of Cold War-era waste in Washington state by 2022 goes out for public comment next month, the state Ecology Department announced late last week. “Ecology plans to start a 30-day public comment period in middle October on […]

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina has begun making space to temporarily store even more canisters of vitrified radioactive waste in Glass Waste Storage Building 1 (GWSB 1) by double-stacking the canisters on top of each other, according to update issued Thursday. Double-stacking formally started on Aug. 25, the Department of Energy facility said. […]

A pair of steel canisters that were not perfectly sealed after they were filled with glass-immobilized waste have been tucked away at the Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility Glass Waste Storage Building, according to a report posted online recently by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. As of Aug. 18, the canisters remained […]

A pair of steel canisters did not pass their leak tests at the Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility, but were still then filled with glass-immobilized waste and stored in the site’s Glass Waste Storage Building, according to a report posted online recently by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. As of Aug. 18, the canisters […]

Kurion’s GeoMelt In-Container Vitrification plant at the U.K. National Nuclear Laboratory’s (NNL) Central Laboratory at Sellafield is now operational, after the end of cold and active commissioning last month. NNL and Kurion announced the news Monday, saying they performed the system’s first commercial melt last week, treating corroded Magnox fuel sludge combined with contaminated soil for […]

Savannah River Remediation (SRR) has hired Westinghouse Electric Co. to enhance cesium removal from the highly radioactive liquid waste in storage tanks at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Department of Energy announced this week that the fixed-price subcontract is worth $12.4 million. Westinghouse will design, build, and deliver the equipment for the tank […]

An engineering test vessel for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site arrived in Richland, Wash., near the former plutonium production plant Wednesday after a daylong barge ride from a supplier’s facility in Vancouver, Wash., the WTP prime said in a series of social media posts. The cylindrical 16-foot-diameter by 38-foot-tall […]

A permit modification essential for getting the Hanford site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) in Richland, Wash., ready to treat low-level liquid radioactive waste in 2022 went out for public comment Monday. The modification would allow Bechtel National to install melting pots required for the Low-Activity Waste Facility (LAW) that is part of DOE’s strategy for […]

About 45 non-manual workers at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant will be told next week that their jobs are ending anytime from late August through October. The layoffs are part of a change in the mix of workers needed as the vitrification plant project “is reaching a transition point as we drive toward completing the […]

The Department of Energy and Savannah River Site held a ribbon cutting on Tuesday to formally celebrate completion of the South Carolina site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF). The facility will process the salt waste that is stored in SRS storage tanks and send the cesium and actinide portions of the waste to the site’s […]

Design changes intended to prevent an explosion at the High-Level Waste Facility under construction as part of the Waste Treatment Plant at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., were both adequate and properly vetted, according to an agency report made public on June 3. “These issues involved concerns about RLD [Radioactive Liquid Waste Disposal] […]

Design changes intended to prevent an explosion at the High-Level Waste Facility under construction as part of the Waste Treatment Plant at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., were both adequate and properly vetted, according to an agency report made public Friday. “These issues involved concerns about RLD [Radioactive Liquid Waste Disposal] system […]

For the third time in four years, the Energy Department has delayed the start-date for treating almost 1 million gallons of liquid waste at its Idaho site, the agency announced late Friday. In a press release that hit the wire around 3 p.m. Eastern time, DOE said it “notified the State of Idaho that it […]

For the third time in four years, the Energy Department has delayed the start-date for treating almost 1 million gallons of liquid waste at its Idaho site, the agency announced late Friday. In a press release that hit the wire around 3 p.m. Eastern time, DOE said it “notified the State of Idaho that it […]

Construction quality at the long-delayed Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) Bechtel National of San Francisco is building at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is generally satisfactory, but “significant challenges” remain with regard to addressing deficiencies already discovered at the former plutonium production site, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments stated in a report […]

The Department of Energy still expects to finalize a contract modification this year that will allow the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) to begin treating low-level waste at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., by 2022, according to the agency’s top nuclear cleanup official. “The rebaseline will be done by the end of the fiscal year,” […]

The second melter at the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) Defense Waste Processing Facility has now processed twice as much radioactive waste as the plant’s now-retired first melter, according to a press release issued Monday. The facility just over two decades ago began converting high-level radioactive waste stored at the Department of Energy facility in South […]

The Energy Department’s top nuclear cleanup official on Tuesday warned lawmakers of soaring remediation costs in Washington state, and faced tough questions about the agency’s plan to find more bill payers for uranium enrichment cleanup in Kentucky and Ohio. The bombshell about escalating cleanup costs at DOE’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash. — long foreseen but little discussed […]

Bechtel National has begun pouring the concrete basemat for a new facility that will do some of the work of the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant’s Pretreatment Facility a decade before it is expected to be operating. To start vitrifying low-activity waste at the Waste Treatment Plant as soon as 2022, the new Effluent Management […]

A facility designed to process 56 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste stored near Richland, Wash., is going to cost far more than the $12.3 billion the Energy Department thought, DOE’s top nuclear cleanup official said Tuesday in a House budget hearing. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) prodded the news out of Monica Regalbuto, DOE’s assistant secretary for […]