Vitrification & Grout

If the recent past is a guide, CEOs at some of the nation’s largest publicly-traded Department of Energy contractors could use their upcoming public earnings calls with Wall Street analysts to discuss President Joe Biden’s toughened stance on vaccinations for federal employees and on-site contractors. Weapons complex contractors BWXT, Fluor, Huntington Ingalls, Jacobs, Leidos and […]

Since starting up in October, the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has processed 1 million gallons of radioactive tank waste, plant builder Parson wrote this week in press release. The 140,000-square-foot Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is the center of DOE plans to empty 36 […]

Since starting up in October, the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has processed 1 million gallons of radioactive tank waste, plant builder Parson wrote this week in press release. The 140,000-square-foot Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) is the center of DOE plans to empty 36 […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday morning her agency’s Office of Environmental Management remains on track to commence treatment of low-activity tank waste by the end of 2023 at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The startup of direct feed low activity waste (DFLAW) operations would mark the beginning […]

The Salt Waste Processing Facility, the centerpiece of Department of Energy plans to empty tanks at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina of 36 million gallons of radioactive waste, is back in operation after shutting down in late March. The Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) resumed its work on a limited basis May 3, […]

The prime contractor for liquid-waste cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is looking for a subcontractor to transport and dispose of non-radioactive waste this fall from test runs of the site’s main treatment plant. The contract will be worth $900,000 over one year beginning Oct. 1, 2021, Amentum-led Washington River […]

Bechtel National earned 70%, or $5.54 million out of a potential $7.88 million, for its work on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state in 2020. That is according to a fee scorecard released this week by the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management for the 2020 calendar year.  […]

Bechtel National earned 70%, or $5.54 million out of a potential $7.88 million, for its work on the Waste Treatment Plant at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state in 2020. That is according to a fee scorecard released this week by the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management for the 2020 calendar year.  […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this week formalized a decision to immobilize some 350 kilograms of plutonium used in a Japanese research facility into glass-like cylinders at the Savannah River Site rather than sending the material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency put the official stamp on […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday formalized a decision to immobilize some 350 kilograms of plutonium used in a Japanese research facility into glass-like cylinders at the Savannah River Site rather than sending the material to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency put the official stamp on […]

The Department of Energy and Parsons Corp. have finished hot commissioning of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Parsons, which designed and built the 140,000-square-foot plant to treat salt waste left over from Cold War era nuclear weapons work, will run the facility for a year before turning […]

The Department of Energy and Parsons Corp. have finished hot commissioning of the Salt Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Parsons, which designed and built the 140,000-square-foot plant to treat salt waste left over from Cold War era atomic weapons work, will run the facility for a year before turning […]

The Department of Energy and Bechtel announced Wednesday in an online ceremony that construction of facilities needed to start processing low-activity tank waste are complete at the $17-billion vitrification plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The direct-feed low-activity waste (DFLAW) facilities at the Waste Treatment Plant include a new Analytical Laboratory, the new […]

The Department of Energy and Bechtel announced Wednesday in an online ceremony that construction of facilities needed to start processing low-activity tank waste are complete at the $17-billion vitrification plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The direct-feed low-activity waste (DFLAW) facilities at the Waste Treatment Plant include a new Analytical Laboratory, the new […]

The Low Activity Waste Facility at the Hanford Site in Washington State is now scheduled to begin solidifying liquid waste not sooner than 2024, instead of 2023, because of COVID-19, under a recent agreement between the Department of Energy and Washington state. In December, Judge Rosanna Peterson of the Eastern District of Washington approved a […]

The Energy Department plans to extend a sole-source contract with Atkins for research on vitrification at the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The DOE Office of River Protection at Hanford said in July 14 procurement notice it intends to keep using the SNC-Lavalin Group subsidiary for testing of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will prepare an updated technical review for the Saltstone Disposal Facility at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Energy Department requested the technical review of the 2020 Saltstone Disposal Facility performance assessment in keeping with a provision of the 2005 National Defense Authorization Act, according to the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will prepare an updated technical review for the Saltstone Disposal Facility at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Energy Department requested the technical review of the 2020 Saltstone Disposal Facility performance assessment in keeping with a provision of the 2005 National Defense Authorization Act, according to the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has formally accepted for review an Energy Department proposal to dispose of vitrified low-activity waste inside the fence at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Energy Department on April 23 filed its draft Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) evaluation with the NRC, which in this case is serving as […]

The Department of Energy indicated in a draft report issued Tuesday that vitrified low-activity waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state can be disposed of at the facility, rather than requiring transfer to another location. Conversion of low-activity waste from Hanford’s 177 underground storage tanks into a glass form for disposal is expected to […]

The Department of Energy indicated in a draft report issued Tuesday that vitrified low-activity waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state can be disposed of at the facility, rather than requiring transfer to another location. The agency will accept public comment through Sept. 26 on its draft Waste Incidental to Reprocessing Evaluation. The agency […]

Stakeholders now have until June 29 to comment on Energy Department plans to use grout to stabilize three underground waste structures at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The original deadline for comments was April 24, which was later extended until May 22, then pushed back again, according to a recent notice from DOE. The […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily halted most physical work on major waste projects scheduled to come online this year at the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory and Savannah River Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Reductions in on-site staffing triggered by DOE efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus have suspended virtually all physical […]

Reduced staffing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Department of Energy to suspend construction of the Saltstone Disposal Unit 7 (SDU 7) at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a recent report. The April 3 staff report filed with DNFSB Technical Director Christopher Roscetti […]

The primary cleanup vendor for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has lined up a subcontractor to stabilize three underground structures with grout, according to a Tuesday press release. Jacobs subsidiary CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation is issuing a $3.9 million subcontract to engineering firm White Shield, of Pasco, Wash., to design and apply […]

The Department of Energy has begun market research for a contractor to convert low-activity radioactive waste into glass at the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state, The DOE Office of Environmental Management on Thursday published a request for Information (RFI)/sources sought notice for a vendor to run Direct-Feed Low-Activity […]

The Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina might have to revisit the schedule for operation of the Salt Waste Processing Facility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesperson said Thursday. Eight cases of infection by the novel coronavirus 2019 have been confirmed at Savannah River. That is more than half of the 14 […]

The schedule for startup of the Savannah River Site’s $2.3 billion Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) has been pushed back to early next year, following initial efforts to begin operations in December 2018 and a more recent target of December 2019. The SWPF Operational Readiness Review should be completed by January, according to Bryce McDevitt, […]

Parsons carried out four proficiency drills between July and September at the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), which is expected to open in December at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina The contractor in charge of building and starting up the plant plans five more drills through November,  according to a […]

Site preparation is continuing for the next large-scale Saltstone Disposal Unit (SDU) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, with plans to begin construction in May 2020. According to a post Monday on the site’s Facebook page, liquid waste contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) has completed excavation of the location […]