The Washington Department of Ecology has slated a Dec. 7 public meeting on proposed changes to the Dangerous Waste Permit being sought by contractor Bechtel National for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) being built at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash.
The Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) and Bechtel are in the midst of a 60-day comment period, which started on Nov. 6 and runs through Jan. 5, 2018. Bechtel is seeking what’s called a Class 2 modification to install some auxiliary equipment such as pipelines, valves, and inline components in order to improve the Effluent Management Facility at WTP.
A notice from the state Department of Ecology says that the equipment is identical to other equipment that has already been installed at the WTP.
The Effluent Management Facility is one of the projects that needs to be completed at WTP in order for Bechtel to move ahead with its plan for direct feeding of low-activity waste or DFLAW as soon as possible. Bechtel aims to begin feeding the mostly-liquid tank waste directly to the WTP as early as 2022.
The public hearing is set for Dec. 7, 2017 at 5:30 p.m. local time at the Richland Public Library. The public meeting will be webcast. Written comments on the proposed permit modification can be filed by Jan. 5 with Dan McDonald of the state Ecology Department at http://wt.ecology.commentinput.com/?id=mhYkP.
For additional information, contact Dieter Bohrmann, ORP, at [email protected].
