In 2011, the WTP Project reached more than 60 percent complete. The WTP is a first-of-a-kind facility is being designed and constructed to immobilize millions of gallons of radioactive and chemical waste. The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Bechtel National, Inc. with principal subcontractor Washington Group, to design and build a nuclear waste treatment facility to convert the radioactive liquid waste to solid glass - a process called vitrification. Vitrifying hazardous waste is necessary to isolate it from the environment and to protect the nearby Columbia River.Many of the challenges being overcome at the WTP have never been addressed anywhere in the world.

WTP lifted a nearly 100-ton carbon bed adsorber into the Low-Activity Waste Facility. This key piece of air-filtration equipment will remove mercury and acidic gases before air is channeled through the thermal catalytic oxidizer, which will remove organics and nitrous oxide.

Crews at WTP placed a 19-ton piping module inside the Pretreatment Facility. The module was lifted over 98-foot walls and lowered into a space that provided less than two inches of clearance on each side and just a few feet on each end. It was set 56 feet above the ground. The module was pre-assembled by union pipefitters on a temporary steel structure outside the facility. It is the first and smallest of 13 such modules; the remaining 12 will be placed in the next few years.

This short video provides an overview of the WTP, including a walkthrough of the vitrification process.

This four-minute video provides a visual overview of the Waste Treatment Plant's progress to-date.

A 50-ton shield door was installed April 22, 2010 at the High-Level Waste Facility. The shield door is in a key area of the 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 door stands 15 feet tall and 18 feet wide.

In October, 2009, the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) Project celebrated surpassing the 50-percent-complete mark. In celebration, each employee received a copy of this video, commemorating our progress through the years.

Excerpts of the video played before the presentation on day two of the 2008 All-Employee meetings. This video contains employee interviews and pictures.

On July 11, the environmental emissions stack for the Analytical Laboratory was set in place atop the facility, increasing its height to 119 feet. The 68-foot stack assembly will exhaust emissions from the Laboratory's ventilation systems, filtering radioactive and chemical contaminants from the air to ensure it meets strict regulations. Made of structural steel, the assembly contains three emission stacks and weighs approximately 140,000 pounds with a base that measures 16 feet by 20 feet.