An employee checks electrical equipment in the Low-Activity Waste Facility switchgear building.

Startup activities at the Hanford Vit Plant received a boost when employees safely brought permanent power to the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility’s switchgear building.

Startup employees energized the main LAW switchgear and transformers in mid-March. Electrical power will be sent sequentially to the lower voltage motor control centers and panels throughout the LAW as startup testing of electrical systems occurs over the next several months.

“Providing permanent power to the facility is a significant accomplishment and marks a change in methodology at the LAW Facility,” said Roy Tyrie, project Startup director. “It’s symbolic of a change from construction to startup and kicks off a waterfall of startup work in the LAW, including testing the permanent plant equipment in the facility.”

Read more about this milestone accomplishment at http://bit.ly/2HXtV7L.

Employees place concrete inside formwork and around reinforcing steel during structural concrete wall placements for an effluent management facility at the Hanford Vit Plant.

Workers at the Hanford Vit Plant have completed the structural concrete foundation and wall placements for an effluent management facility. The building will support the Department of Energy’s plans to begin treating radioactive tank waste through its Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) vitrification approach.

Building concrete work began last year and has included more than 990 tons of reinforcing steel bar, 147 tons of embeds, and 7,465 cubic yards of high-strength concrete so far.

The effluent management facility works along with robust underground double-walled transfer pipes as part of the Balance of Facilities (BOF) support infrastructure to concentrate secondary effluents generated during treatment of the off-gas from the Low-Activity Waste Facility melter.

Read more about this important progress at https://www.hanfordvitplant.com/newsroom/concrete-walls-complete-for-vit-plant-support-building/.

The 300-ton Low-Activity Waste Facility melters will heat waste and glass-forming materials to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit during the vitrification process.

The Hanford Vit Plant was featured on the front cover of Nuclear Engineering International magazine. The cover story explains how the focus is shifting to startup and commissioning at the first phase of the world’s most complex radioactive waste treatment plant.

Published continuously since 1956 with more than 60 years of being an independent nuclear technical journal, Nuclear Engineering International covers all aspects of civil nuclear power generation and its related supply chains globally.

Read the full article at http://www.neimagazine.com/features/featurehanfords-melters-6070128/.