From a one-of-a-kind battery system to six massive process vessels, Greenberry Industrial of Vancouver, Washington, uses technical expertise and nuclear know-how to provide complex equipment crucial to Hanford and the broader nuclear industry.
“Greenberry Industrial has worked with us for the past 11 years, and their technical and engineering capabilities, as well as their commitment to safety and quality, have made them a trusted partner,” said
Frank Salaman, procurements and subcontracts manager for the Vit Plant prime contractor Bechtel National Inc (BNI).
The Vit Plant, formally called the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, will use a process called vitrification to safely treat millions of gallons of radioactive and chemical waste generated at Hanford during the Manhattan Project and Cold War. The waste is mixed with silica and other glass-forming materials, heated to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit in melters, and poured into stainless steel containers.
During their partnership, Greenberry has provided about $20 million of equipment and services to the Vit Plant, often tackling significant technical complexities and challenges not typically required by commercial nuclear projects.
“We’ve done about 20 projects during our collaboration with the Vit Plant, including five or six one-of-a-kind projects,” said Mark Stapleton, vice president of engineering and nuclear services at Greenberry, which also has a facility in Corvallis, Oregon. “The uniqueness of these projects has given us the opportunity to showcase our industry-leading engineering and fabrication capabilities.”
Those one-of-a-kind projects include an uninterruptible power system, the first of its kind ever used in a nuclear environment, that will provide backup power for the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility, including the melters. The system is one of the plant’s vital safeguards and consists of seven racks of 196 batteries. The system automatically starts up during a power loss to provide electricity to the LAW Facility, including the melter exhaust system and other critical safety systems.
As a general industrial contractor, fabricator and mechanical installation provider for more than 40 years, Greenberry “cut our teeth in the pulp, paper and upstream oil industry,” according to Stapleton. The company expanded into the nuclear field 12 years ago as the industry faced a declining supply chain. They specialize in providing complex engineered items and equipment, ensuring those items are manufactured to the rigorous engineering and quality specifications required for nuclear projects.
Most recently, Greenberry fabricated six large alloy and stainless-steel corrosion-resistant process vessels, or tanks, for the Vit Plant. The vessels range in size from six feet tall and 24 feet in diameter to 45 feet tall and 14 feet in diameter, weighing between one and 30 tons. The tanks will be used in the plant’s Effluent Management Facility, which handles secondary liquid waste generated by the LAW Facility’s melters and off-gas, or exhaust, treatment systems. The vessels required state-of-the-art welding processes and precision inspection of nozzles, attachments and vessel heads.
Their expertise and reliability have resulted in continued work with Vit Plant prime contractor Bechtel at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Uranium Processing Facility. Greenberry is the only company to have won Bechtel’s Small Business of the Year award and Large Business of the Year award in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
“The Vit Plant and Bechtel are longstanding customers, and we’re honored to be part of the projects we’ve worked on,” Stapleton said. “We are lucky to find partnerships that fuel us to keep growing and innovating. We wouldn’t be where we are without these opportunities at the Vit Plant.”