RICHLAND, Wash. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of River Protection (ORP) and contractor Bechtel National Inc., (BNI) announced today that construction crews completed a contract milestone for electrical work in the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The contract milestone, called ‘bulk cable electrical installations,’ was completed nearly four months ahead of schedule. Completion of this milestone is a major step toward completing full construction of the LAW Facility structure.
“This accomplishment included balancing a complex design, purchasing quality materials to the right specifications, skilled planning to execute the construction work, and quality craftsmanship in the field,” said Brian Reilly, BNI project director for the WTP Project. “This milestone sets the stage for our workforce to meet the LAW physical plant complete contract milestone of June 2018.”
The LAW Facility includes more than 1.1 million linear feet of electrical raceway, cables, and wiring. That’s enough combined electrical infrastructure to span 840 laps around an Olympic-sized track or about 210 miles.
“Completing the electrical cable work is significant,” said Bill Hamel, WTP federal project director for ORP. “The milestone for bulk cable installation, referred to as “wire pulls”, required BNI to complete installation of all scheduled power, control, instrumentation, and fiber optic cables, including all cable tray and raceway systems.”
DOE’s Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) approach will enable treatment of low-activity waste as soon as the LAW Facility, relevant support facilities, and the WTP Analytical Laboratory (LAB), are operational in advance of completion of the entire WTP as was originally planned. This will allow DOE to vitrify low-activity waste as soon as December 2021 and will provide valuable operating experience that will be beneficial for overall WTP operations. The LAB is 98 percent complete, and the collection of more than 20 support facilities are largely complete – some portions of both the LAB and support facilities are undergoing systems testing and startup activities.