Vit Bits Special Edition - Vit Plant Makes Pivotal Progress in 2019

Mission completion is in sight for the Hanford Vit Plant team after progress made in 2019 has the project moving full speed towards making glass in 2023. The plant continued to pivot away from construction activities and moved deep into startup testing and commissioning on the way to beginning waste treatment through the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) approach.
 
“Our accomplishments speak to the teamwork, collaboration, and partnership between our customer, regulators, stakeholders, subcontractors, and nearly 3,000 employees,” said Valerie McCain, Bechtel principal vice president and Vit Plant project director. “We’re excited about it. It’s a real privilege to be a part of the team making this next bit of history at Hanford.”

With DFLAW design finishing in June and the last of 9,859 pieces of permanent plant equipment arriving in October, the Vit Plant jobsite is nearly out of the engineering, procurement, and construction business. The Effluent Management Facility is the final major construction effort to support DFLAW and will be finished in 2021.
 
The major accomplishments at EMF this year included safely placing and assembling the 111-ton electrical powerhouse, which allowed workers to bring power to the facility by completing installation of thousands of feet of electrical cables. Crews also set two massive processing vessels inside the facility, each standing 40 feet tall and weighing 160 tons. These vessels were transported by barge up the Columbia River to reach the Vit Plant in May.

The Analytical Laboratory, Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility, and Balance of Facilities have all finished construction and are well advanced into startup testing.
 
The startup accomplishments kicked off in January when the Analytical Laboratory became the first major facility to enter the startup testing phase. The Lab’s HEPA filtration system later completed testing thanks to a collaboration with Mississippi State University technicians, and the first scientific equipment arrived and has been installed to allow chemists to prepare for waste analyses.
 
To date, 188 of the 265 systems needed to support DFLAW have been turned over from Construction to Startup.