REMINDER: Hanford Waste Treatment Plant to host public open house in Richland this Wednesday
Tue, November 29, 2011Suzanne Heaston, Bechtel National, Inc., (509) 371-2329
Carrie Meyer, Department of Energy, (509) 372-0810
Richland, Wash. — The Hanford Waste Treatment Plant Project, also known as the "Vit Plant," will host an open house, Wed., Nov. 30, 5-7:30 p.m., at the Red Lion Hotel in Richland, Wash. The purpose of the open house is to promote public awareness and support the project's efforts to be transparent and open. Vit Plant subject matter experts will be available to answer questions, and Vit Plant exhibits and videos will be on display. Everyone is invited to attend.
To support the Vit Plant's community giving efforts, Santa will be on hand to collect donations for Toys for Tots. The public is welcome to bring their own cameras and take photos with Santa.
Bechtel National, Inc. is designing and building the world's largest radioactive waste treatment plant for the U.S. Department of Energy at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state. The $12.2 billion Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, also known as the "Vit Plant," will immobilize the radioactive liquid waste currently stored in 177 underground tanks using a process called "vitrification."
Vitrification involves blending the waste with molten glass and heating it to high temperatures. The mixture is then poured into stainless steel canisters. In this glass form, the waste is stable and impervious to the environment, and its radioactivity will dissipate over hundreds to thousands of years.
The Vit Plant will cover 65 acres with four nuclear facilities — Pretreatment, Low-Activity Waste Vitrification, High-Level Waste Vitrification and Analytical Laboratory — as well as operations and maintenance buildings, utilities and office space.
Construction of the Vit Plant began in 2001 and is more than 60 percent complete. The project is scheduled to complete construction in 2016; will reach commissioning in 2019 and achieve full operations in 2022.