Hanford contractor teams rehearse procedures for the first transfer of waste from one of the site’s underground tanks to the WTP later this summer. (Photo: DOE)
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said that crews at its Hanford Site in Washington state are preparing for the site’s first-ever transfer of radioactive waste from one of its large underground tanks, Tank AP-106, to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP).
Contractors on both ends of the waste transfer are coordinating practice runs to prepare for those operations. These runs will continue through June as teams align procedures and confirm that equipment is functioning as intended.
The work: Teams from Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure (H2C) and Bechtel National are working together to verify each step of the transfer process. H2C is focused on preparing the underground tank systems that hold the waste, while Bechtel leads operations at the WTP, where the waste will eventually be solidified in glass through the process of vitrification.
According to DOE-EM, their joint efforts include checking pump systems, testing leak detectors, and coordinating procedures between waste tank and treatment plant control rooms.
Hanford is currently “cold commissioning” the WTP’s Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility using simulated waste made up of chemicals to test treatment and exhaust systems. “Hot commissioning” using actual waste from Tank AP-106 is expected to begin later this summer.
Earlier this month, workers completed the final connection between Hanford’s underground waste tanks and the WTP, installing the final piece of pipe—called a jumper—to the 3,500-foot underground transfer line between Tank AP-106 and the plant.
The tank holds about 830,000 gallons of low-activity waste that has been treated and is ready to be sent to the LAW Facility, where it will be combined with glass-forming materials and heated to 2,100°F. The vitrified waste will then be poured into stainless steel containers for disposal at Hanford’s on-site disposal facility.
