Bechtel National workers have completed assembling the first melter at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, the Department of Energy announced Thursday. Completion of the project earned the contractor $4.275 million in incentive pay.
The melter is one of two that will be used at the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, which DOE aims to begin operating as soon as 2022. Bechtel has a milestone to have the second melter assembled in September, which would be worth another $4.275 million in incentive pay.
“The melters are the heart of the WTP low-activity waste vitrification process, and completing the assembly marks another step towards completing construction and shifting to commissioning,” said Bill Hamel, DOE project director for the vitrification plant project.
The Waste Treatment Plant will ultimately convert up to 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste, a byproduct of Hanford’s former plutonium production operations, into a glass form safe for storage. Under a court order, full operations must begin by 2036.
This is the largest nuclear waste melter ever built in the United States, said Peggy McCullough, Bechtel project director. During operations, the Low-Activity Waste Facility’s two melters will produce 30 tons of glass per day, which is 10 times the capacity of the melter at the Defense Waste Processing Facility at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, according to department officials at Hanford DOE.
The WTP’s low-activity waste melter weighs 300 tons and measures approximately 20 feet by 30 feet and 16 feet high. It will heat a mixture of concentrated low-activity waste and glass-forming materials, including silica, to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. The mixture will be poured into stainless steel containers to harden for permanent storage in Hanford trenches. “We are supremely confident this facility is going to safely process the waste that currently threatens the environmental here at Hanford,” McCullough said.
