Construction and commissioning of key nuclear-cleanup facilities headline the Department of Energy’s goals for calendar year 2022, according to the Environmental Management (EM) Office’s recently-published list of priorities.
Among these are two big projects at the Hanford Site in Washington state. There, EM intends to finish cold commissioning of the first of two melters at the Waste Treatment Plant being built by Bechtel. The melters are at the heart of plans to vitrify low-activity radioactive tank waste at Hanford into a stable glass for disposal.
The melters will heat low-activity tank waste and glass-forming material to 2,100-degrees Fahrenheit at the Waste Treatment Plant, scheduled to start direct-feed low-activity waste operations by the end of 2023.
In addition, DOE expects to start construction of a cocoon-like enclosure for the K-East Reactor at Hanford. The enclosure is meant to keep the 1950s-vintage reactor building stable while radiological contamination dissipates. The K-East and its sister facility, the K-West reactor, are less than 400 yards from the Columbia River. Both ceased operation at the former plutonium production complex in the 1970s. Most of the nine old reactors at Hanford have already been cocooned.
Also this year, EM expects to continue construction of new salt disposal units at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and key surface facilities for a new underground ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm this week presented a special achievement award to federal employees and contractors who oversaw major remediation of the former K-25 gaseous diffusion plant complex, now the East Tennessee Technology Park, at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site.
The gaseous diffusion site that first produced enriched uranium for World War II weapons, and also later for commercial purposes, saw the last of its buildings demolished in 2020. Over the years, DOE and crews for UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs remediation contractor, deactivated and tore down more than 500 old, contaminated structures, many dating to the 1950s, over an area that could cover 225 football fields, DOE said in a Wednesday press release.
Oak Ridge officials said in a youtube video that many of the contaminated structures were so ramshackle that a tornado could have resulted in major environmental problems in East Tennessee. The DOE also calls the Oak Ridge project the first major demolition of a uranium enrichment plant in the world.
Members of the “Vision 2020” Project Team honored for the Oak Ridge Work include Brad Adams, Gary Chandler, Steve Clemons, Heather Cloar, Jim Daffron, Tracie Jackson, Dan Macias, Dawn Mills, Mike Mills, Mark Posey, Gary Riner, Ken Whittle and Chad York.
“These awards are bestowed on a select group of individuals who have gone above and beyond and whose creativity, drive and commitment have had significant and lasting impact,” EM Senior Adviser William “Ike” White said.
