Installation of a High-Level Waste Door at Hanford's Vit Plant

Construction crews with Bechtel National, Inc. complete the precision installation of a massive 50-ton shield door at Hanfords Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) in southeastern Washington State. Bechtel is designing and building the WTP for the U.S. Department of Energys Office of River Protection.

The shield door is in a key area of the WTPs High-Level Waste Vitrification (HLW) Facility and was installed to extremely tight tolerances, down to five-thousandths of an inch, or less than the diameter of a human hair.

The steel shield door is 8 inches thick and measures 15 feet tall and 18 feet wide. It was installed in the melter area, which is the core of the HLW Facility. When operational, the HLW Facility will use two identical 90-ton melters to heat the high-level waste and glass-former mixture to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. The molten waste/glass mixture will then be poured into stainless steel canisters, sealed and prepared for storage and ultimate disposal.

Each HLW melter is designed to a five-year lifespan. At the end of the melters lifespan, it will be encased in a 250-ton, 8-inch-thick protective container, removed from the melter area and replaced with a new melter.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• waste treatment plant
• vit plant
• vitrification
• construction
• engineering
• Hanford
• Washington
• Richland
• Bechtel
• Department of Energy
• DOE
• Office of River Protection
• ORP
• Tri-Cities
• technology

[QueenGobbleGobble]

I love these huge projects! Makes me think we can do anything!