The Bonneville Power Administration, a regional authority for the Department of Energy, and DOE’s Office of Environmental Management have flipped the switch on a major new 18-mile electric transmission line at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The new 230-kilovolt transmission line connects two substations at the nuclear cleanup site and replaces an 80-year-old line, according to a Tuesday announcement from Environmental Management and Leidos-led contractor Mission Integration Solutions.
A dual-circuit tower design included in the new line should help shore up electric supply for the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, Environmental Management said. That long-awaited facility is scheduled to start turning some of Hanford’s less-radioactive liquid waste into a solid glass form later this summer.
Bonneville Power built the electric transmission infrastructure and HMIS supported the project and will operate the circuit that provides power to the Waste Treatment Plant and other key Hanford Site facilities, DOE said in the release.
