A joint venture led by BWX Technologies started its transition Oct. 21 to take charge of the roughly 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical liquid waste at the Department of Energy Hanford Site in Washington state, an advisory board heard Wednesday.
The 120-day transition to Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) should be complete in February, DOE’s Hanford Field Office Manager Brian Vance told the Hanford Advisory Board. Based on 120 days, the transition should be complete around Feb. 18, 2025.
H2C, which also includes Amentum and Fluor, will take over tank management from Washington River Protection Solutions. In addition, in 2026 the new contractor will also take over operation of the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, Vance said.
“It’s really a two-phase transition,” Vance said. H2C will take over the vitrification plant after Bechtel does “hot commissioning” that involves startup of Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Facilities, which will start to turn some of the less radioactive tank waste into glass-like logs.
Cold commissioning of those facilities is scheduled to start this month, Vance said. The process, an equipment test, involves using a simulant to mimic radioactive waste.
Vance also said the tank-side cesium removal project resumed operation over the weekend and is probably on its ninth batch. By the end of the month, Vance said he expects 800,000 gallons to be pretreated in preparation for solidification in the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. DOE has previously said it wants 1 million pretreated gallons before the plant starts turning waste into glass cylinders in mid-2025.