Installation of the Pretreatment Engineering Platform began in late February, and the final pieces were installed in May. Housed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the PEP will test and confirm the effectiveness of select vit plant pretreatment processes on a larger scale than ever before. Testing is scheduled to begin in late 2008.

On March 24 an 81-foot tall, 14-foot wide Glass Former Silo was installed at Hanford's Vitrification Plant, permanently changing the skyline on-site. The silo, which will store and dispense silica during glass-making operations, weighs 51,300 pounds and is the tallest of the 13 silos needed at the plant. This is the third silo installed to-date. The silo was shipped to Hanford on a specially fabricated perimeter trailer and was in-transit for twelve days. The shipper had to travel only during day-light hours due to the load size. Each of the 13 silos will hold a different glass-forming material that will be dispensed to the vitrification facilities in the proper combinations for each batch of glass. The silos are being fabricated in Rothschild, Wisconsin by Dynamic Air, Inc.

The Waste Treatment Plant (Vit Plant) is the cornerstone of cleanup at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford site. It will provide a solution to Hanford's radioactive chemical waste from nearly 50 years of nuclear weapons production. The largest DOE construction project, the Vit Plant, once completed, will use a process known as vitrification to treat and stabilize the waste by blending it with molten glass and placing it in stainless steel canisters. This is a short video commemorating our accomplishments in 2007 as we move this first-of-a-kind plant closer to completion.