The Department of Energy said Tuesday workers at its sprawling nuclear cleanup site in Washington state have installed one last piece of piping needed for the plant that will vitrify liquid radioactive waste into a solid glass form.
Crews have finished the final connection between underground tanks storing radioactive waste and the multi-billion-dollar Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, DOE said in a press release.
The plant built by Bechtel National is scheduled to start solidifying some of the less-radioactive tank waste into glass logs starting in August.
“Advancing the tank waste mission safely and effectively is a top priority for the Hanford Site,” said Brian Harkins, acting manager of DOE’s Hanford Field Office. “This last link brings Hanford another step closer to solidifying tank waste in glass. We’re doing some final testing at the plant to make sure the exhaust system is ready, and soon we’ll be ready to begin making glass.”
Earlier workers installed a 3,500-foot underground transfer line between the plant and a million-gallon storage tank called AP-106, DOE said. The tank holds about 830,000 gallons of waste that has been pre-treated and to remove cesium prior to being solidified in glass.
Workers recently installed the final piece of pipe, called a jumper, to complete the connection.
“Installing this last piece of equipment involved months of coordination with treatment plant staff for awareness and safety,” said Carol Johnson, BWXT-led Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure (H2C) president and program manager.
Hanford is currently cold commissioning the plant using a simulated waste made up of chemicals to test treatment and exhaust systems. Hot commissioning using actual waste from Tank AP-106 will begin later this year. Workers with H2C and the treatment plant are practicing waste transfer procedures to ensure safe, compliant transfers in the coming months.
Hanford has roughly 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive and hazardous waste, the resident of decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons programs, stored in underground tanks.
