Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions started procurement this week for a subcontractor to help with the next liquid radioactive waste pretreatment system at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
The planned Advanced Modular Pretreatment System will be a successor to the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) project that the Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) started up in January.
TSCR has a 5-year design life, and its successor pretreatment system is meant to run for an additional 20 years serving the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste portion of Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, according to a statement of work for a project integration manager that WRPS published in a solicitation dated Wednesday.
The feds envision construction of the Advanced Modular Pretreatment System starting in fiscal 2024 and concluding in fiscal 2027, according to a Hanford five-year plan dated September 2022.
TSCR so far has prepared 380,000 gallons of liquid waste for solidification in the Direct-Feed Low-Activity waste portion of Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The plant, which DOE wants to start up by the end of 2023, is designed to solidify a portion of the less radioactive liquid waste left over from years of plutonium production during the Cold War and the Manhattan Project.
TSCR, located at Hanford’s AP Tank Farm, is part of the TSCR demonstration project. The setup, projected to have a five-year lifespan, uses ion exchange columns and other components to remove solids and cesium before the liquid supernate is solidified into glass cylinders via the Waste Treatment Plant’s Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste process.
The DOE is working on alternatives to use “the lessons learned and operating experience from TSCR,” according to the work statement. “The alternatives being considered are limited to those technologies proven effective under the TSCR Demonstration Project along with various system configurations.”
“[A]n experienced subcontractor with a projects background will help ensure success for this project,” the tank farms prime wrote in the solicitation. Responses to the solicitation are due by 4 p.m. Pacific Time on Dec. 12.
