Energy Secretary Chu, EPA Administrator Jackson, Washington State Governor Gregoire and Oregon Governor Kulongoski Join Elected Officials in Announcing Agreement on New Commitments for Hanford Cleanup

With the ongoing construction of the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) in the background at the Hanford Site, Energy Secretary Steven Chu joined Washington Governor Chris Gregoire, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Cruden and other officials today to announce a proposed legal settlement that will impose a new, enforceable and achievable schedule for tank waste cleanup at the Hanford Site.

The Washington State and federal officials announced a proposed judicial consent decree that will be filed in federal court, then be subject to a public comment period. The proposed consent decree between the Department of Energy (DOE) and Washington State will set a new and achievable schedule for construction and startup of the WTP and the retrieval of waste from the large underground single-shell storage tanks at Hanford. Hanford currently stores 53 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste in 177 underground tanks at the Site.

Waste Treatment Plant Achieves VPP Merit Status

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) project the agency’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Merit status for excellence and leadership in safety and health. DOE initiated the VPP in January 1994 to promote improved safety and health performance through public recognition of outstanding voluntary safety programs.

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Waste Removal Resumes in Single-Shell Tanks
   
....Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has resumed removal and transfer of waste from another of Hanford’s aging single-shell underground waste storage tanks.  Waste retrieval from tank C-110 halted in September 2008 to allow for modifications within and to the double-shell waste receiving/storage tank AN-106.  Retrieval is restarting approximately six months ahead of schedule.  

     Tank C-110 is one of 16 tanks located in C Farm in the 200 East Area near the center of the 586- square-mile Hanford Site.  It is a 530,000 gallon tank, built in 1946, and currently holds approximately 126,000 gallons of sludge and other radioactive and chemical waste materials. Waste from C-110 is being transferred to storage in tank AN-106, a newer and safer double-shell tank.  The waste is being moved through temporary, above-ground hose-in-hose transfer lines to the double-shell tank approximately 900 feet away.  The above-ground transfer lines meet environmental regulations and avoid the high cost of installing permanent infrastructure. 

     Retrieval of waste from C-110 is expected to take approximately four months. Retrieval resumed earlier than originally planned thanks to the innovative efforts of WRPS engineers. 

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Vit Plant Emissions Stack Installed

. . .On Friday, July 11, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of River Protection (ORP) contractor Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) raised a 70-foot tall emissions-cutting stack onto what will be the world’s largest vitrification plant? BNI, under contract with ORP, is responsible for designing, building and commissioning the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) on the Hanford Site. Once complete, the WTP will be the largest and most complex vitrification facility in the world. The newly-installed stack will ensure all facility emissions will be regulatory compliant and protective of public health and the environment. Workers placed the stack onto the Analytical Laboratory (Lab), where the initial tank waste samples will be analyzed to determine the correct chemical and glass-forming “recipe” needed to glassify the waste. A proper glass recipe is needed to guarantee a consistent, durable and stable product that can be stored for thousands of years. When in operation, 10,000 samples will be taken annually to ensure high product quality and efficient process controls. 

 ... an 80-foot tall Glass Former Silo was installed at the Waste Treatment Plant on March 24, 2008, again changing the skyline of the construction site. The silo, which will store and dispense silica during vitrification (glass-making) operations, weighs 78,100 pounds and is the tallest of the 13 silos needed at the plant. To-date, six silos have arrived and three have been installed.  Each of the 13 silos will hold a different glass-forming material that will be dispensed to the WTP’s vitrification facilities in the proper combinations for each batch of glass.

…that the FOLDTRACK®, the latest tank waste retrieval tool, is a remotely-operated, track-mounted system that uses a wide blade to move radioactive waste from the floor of an underground waste storage tank to a pump so the waste can be removed.  The unit is also fitted with two onboard water jetting systems to aid in moving waste and cleaning tank walls.  The innovative FOLDTRACK can stretch itself out to fit down a 12” diameter pipe, reconfigure itself inside the tank, and then right itself on the tank floor in order to do its job.  It has full hydraulic controls with no electrical equipment or onboard instrumentation inside the tank.  It is operated from a remote desktop control station that can be located up to 800 feet away.  Once placed in its deployment mode it is lowered into a tank by its umbilical.  It was designed to be simple, reliable and extremely robust.
The first deployment of FOLDTRACK, following the completion of testing and readiness reviews, will be in tank C-109 in early 2008.

 

…that construction has resumed on the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant’s (WTP) High-Level Waste Vitrification (HLW) and Pretreatment (PT) facilities after nearly two years of construction curtailment.  Heavy construction activities such as installing structural steel, rebar and concrete formwork for placing concrete floors and walls will begin immediately in the HLW facility.  The building requires 9,600 tons of structural steel and 88,000 cubic yards of concrete.  The HLW is one of five major components of the WTP and will treat the most radioactive liquid wastes from Hanford’s underground storage tanks by immobilizing it in a sturdy glass matrix. During operations, the HLW will produce 6.6 tons of glass daily.  The HLW facility is currently 17 percent complete, and will be two football fields wide, one football field long and six stories tall when complete.  Work in the PT facility will ramp up to heavy construction activities later in the fall.  Nearly 1,300 people are now working at the construction site in Hanford’s 200 east area, including more than 600 union craft workers, 400 field non-manual staff, and 200 subcontractors.  In November 2005, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) suspended construction on the HLW and PT facilities to validate the design using more stringent seismic criteria.  On August 10, 2007, the Secretary of Energy certificated the final seismic ground motion criteria based on the results of data collected and analyzed from the drilling of deep boreholes at the construction site.   Certification of the final criteria cleared the way to resume HLW and PT construction.

…that a new waste sampling tool was put into service in tank S-112 and performed well beyond expectations.  The Alligator is a new, light-weight device powered by a battery pack that uses eight standard AA batteries.  The stainless steel unit weighs less than two pounds and is made of off-the-shelf components.  The Alligator is lowered with its jaws opened, down a riser into the tank on a thin cable.  A small electric current is sent down a thin wire which activates a small motor to close the jaws.  Once the sample is obtained, the device is retrieved into a small glove bag to control contamination.  The sample is then placed in a jar and shipped to the 222-S Laboratory for analysis.  The process is repeated until sufficient quantities are retrieved to meet requirements.  The Alligator is manufacture by the same company that built the Off-Riser Sampler System (the Possum) and uses many of the same parts.  It was tested extensively at the Cold Test Facility before being deployed and performed well.  It uses electricity rather than pneumatic or hydraulic systems, making it easier to manage than other technologies.

...that DOE's tank farms contractor CH2M HILL has introduced a new heat stress program to keep workers safe during the extreme summer heat in Eastern Washington?  Two of the primary features of this program are personal protective equipment never before used in the Hanford tank farms: lightweight cool vests and lightweight but robust anti-contamination clothing.  The program also emphasizes education in addition to prevention.  Workers are trained about the importance of hydration before, during, and after work, and trained to recognize the symptoms of heat-related illness.  With the training, each worker is issued a handy heat stress reference card for easy review.  Air-conditioned cool-down tents have been set up adjacent to tank farms so workers can brake from the hot sun without having to remove and redress in protective clothing, cool drinking water is always available, and water-misters have also been installed at work locations.  CH2M HILL's heat stress program has been very successful and was the recent topic of a story on KNDU Television News (see video).

...the final steel beam was hoisted into the air and set in place, officially "topping out" the Analytical Laboratory.  This beam is the last of 1,500 tons of structural steel erected for the Analytical Laboratory, which is the smallest of the massive Waste Treatment Plant’s (WTP) nuclear facilities.  The laboratory is key to operation of the WTP as it will have the capabilities to analyze samples of nuclear waste from Hanford’s tank farms to determine its chemical composition.  In addition, it will have the means to analyze samples of glassified waste to ensure the WTP’s end product meets strict environmental regulations.  The laboratory will operate around the clock to handle nearly 10,000 waste samples a year.  Waste samples will help develop the correct “recipe” needed to produce a high-quality glass waste form.  The Analytical Laboratory will cover an area as large as a football field and also contain 12,000 cubic yards of concrete, seven miles of piping and 33 miles of electrical cable.  The other major nuclear facilities that make up the WTP are the Pretreatment Facility, High-Level Waste Vitrification Facility and Low-Activity Waste Vitrification Facility.

...another test of bulk vitrification is underway.  Bulk Vitrification is under evaluation as a potential supplemental treatment technology for some of Hanford's low-activity tank waste.  This week, the 10,000-liter mixer-dryer that may be used to prepare low-activity waste for treatment will be tested.  The mixer-dryer will mix simulated tank waste with glass forming minerals and dry it so it can be fed into a melter box.  The testing will be conducted in three phases.  The first phase will test equipment systems without any material inside the dryer.  The second phase will use Hanford mixed soil with water to test drying capability.  The third phase will use material to simulate single-shell tank waste, and prepare dried product for future test melts.  The mixer-dryer testing will help the project prepare for the next phase of testing, which will be to link the mixer-dryer to a melter box for the next full-scale melt test scheduled for June

…that we recently completed field work to remove over 614,000 gallons of radioactive and chemical sludge and other solid waste material from single-shell tank S-112.  This is the seventh successful waste retrieval project from a single-shell tank at the Hanford Site under the regulatory requirements of the Tri-Party Agreement.  Retrieval began in September of 2003 when liquids were first removed using convention pumping techniques.  Next, a thick layer of sludge was removed using Modified Sluicing technology.  Finally, the Salt Mantis was inserted into the tank as a demonstration project to see if the technology would work to break up and mobilize the hardened material at the bottom of the tank.  The Salt Mantis was successful and once the limits of that technology had been reached, approximately 2,400 gallons of residual waste remained in the tank, well below the 360 cubic foot limit established by the Tri-Party Agreement.