hanford vitrification plant
Project progress update
Total project: 63% complete (as of January 22, 2012)
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86% design complete
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64% procurement complete
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60% construction complete
Pretreatment Facility
World’s largest radioactive chemical separations facility
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80% design complete
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51% procurement complete
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42% construction complete
High-Level Waste Vitrification Facility
Turns high-level waste into glass
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88% design complete
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74% procurement complete
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39% construction complete
Low-Activity Waste Vitrification Facility
Turns low-activity waste into glass
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89% design complete
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86% procurement complete
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68% construction complete
Analytical Laboratory
Ensures glass meets regulatory requirements
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81% design complete
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75% procurement complete
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77% construction complete
Balance of Facilities — 18 support facilities and underground utilities
Vast infrastructure to support operations
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77% design complete
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47% procurement complete
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63% construction complete
A bit of perspective
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Plant construction requires approximately 263,000 cubic yards of concrete — enough to fill 26,300 concrete trucks.
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Plant construction requires more than 930,000 feet of piping; if laid end-to-end, it would stretch more than 170 miles — approximately the distance from Seattle, Wash., to Portland, Ore.
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Plant construction requires more than 40,000 tons of structural steel, enough to build the equivalent of three Eiffel Towers.
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Plant construction requires more than 5,000,000 feet of cable and wire; if laid end-to-end, it would stretch nearly 900 miles, more than the distance from Seattle, Wash., to Salt Lake City, Utah.
