EM federal and contractor officials outlined the status of three significant radioactive liquid waste treatment initiatives at the Waste Management Symposia 2021.
Office of Environmental Management
March 17, 2021
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EM federal and contractor officials outlined the status of three significant radioactive liquid waste treatment initiatives at the Waste Management Symposia 2021.
One EM site has commenced full-scale operations at a waste treatment facility, while the other two sites have made significant progress in preparing to address tank farm wastes from Cold War-era spent nuclear fuel reprocessing missions.
Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF)
Mike Pittman, Parsons Corporation vice president of nuclear operations, said the Savannah River Site's SWPF began full-scale operations in January 2021 and has processed almost 750,000 gallons of tank waste. It is anticipated the facility will process up to 6 million gallons of waste during the first year of operations.
SWPF is operated by Parsons, which also designed and constructed the facility. Parsons will continue to operate the facility during its first year of operation.
In preparing for radiological operations, Pittman said employees tested the plant with simulant and crews simulated working in a “hot” environment.
“We did a lot of radiological activities before we were actually radiological,” he said.
Jim Folk, assistant manager for waste disposition at the Savannah River Operations Office, said the project benefited from the reuse of existing tank farm infrastructure.
“We really made a focus on reusing infrastructure — repurposing it,” he said. “That was one area that was significant.”
Fred Hughes, president of EM contractor Fluor Idaho at the Idaho National Laboratory Site, said a host of modifications have been completed at IWTU in advance of the plant embarking on a 50-day confirmatory run using simulant this summer.
The IWTU was constructed to convert 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing liquid waste into a dry, granular solid using a steam-reforming process. The waste will be containerized and stored onsite until a national geologic repository is available for its disposal.
Robotic arms have been added to the plant’s canister fill cells to decontaminate stainless steel product canisters prior to placement in concrete vaults.
Joel Case, IWTU project manager for the DOE Idaho Operations Office, said once the 50-day confirmatory run is complete, the plant will begin operations using a simulant and then introduce an equal mix of simulant and actual waste for two weeks before moving to full-scale radiological operations.
Chemist Kay Keltner with EM Office of River Protection contractor Bechtel National, Inc. works inside the Analytical Laboratory at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant to prepare for cold commissioning. The Analytical Laboratory is key to the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste approach, which will be used to treat millions of gallons of waste from Hanford’s underground tanks.
Hanford has completed the Low-Activity Waste Facility, Analytical Laboratory, Effluent Management Facility, and 14 support structures that will be used in the DFLAW approach. The completed facilities are now in the startup, testing, and commissioning phases. The next major step is to heat up large melters that will vitrify the waste, or immobilize it within glass.
DFLAW is a system of interdependent projects and infrastructure improvements, managed and highly integrated as a program, that must operate together to vitrify Hanford tank waste.
Tom Fletcher, EM Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant federal project director for Hanford, said the site has been focusing on production in addition to construction.
”Production of this type hasn’t been done at Hanford in 30 years,” he said. ”We’re focusing on the three ’Ps’ – plant, process, and people.”
Erik Olds, acting EM chief of staff and Office of River Protection DFLAW deputy integration manager, said communication with all interested parties has been essential as construction continues.
”Communicate (your) intent and goals seamlessly,” he said.
Olds said he is now counting down to the project completion in months instead of years.
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