Office of River Protection highlights safety, progress at Waste Management Conference

News release distributed by the Office of River Protection

PHOENIX – The Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) and its contractors will present recent accomplishments and progress at the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) and the Hanford Tank Farms, on March 7 at the 2017 Waste Management Symposium.

A half-day session focused on ORP begins with a panel discussion featuring Kevin Smith, ORP field manager; Bill Hamel, WTP federal project director; Peggy McCullough, project director for Bechtel National Inc. (BNI) at WTP; and Mark Lindholm, president and project manager of Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), Hanford’s tank operations contractor, as well as other technical experts. Hanford Site is a “featured site” at this year’s event.

“We appreciate WM providing us the opportunity to be a featured site and to share ORP’s successes, progress, outlook and challenges” said Smith. “Our team certainly has a lot to be proud of this year as we start the transition to startup and commissioning of DFLAW and making glass as soon as 2022.”

The Hanford Site, located in southeast Washington state, is home to 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive liquid waste stored in 177 underground tanks – the result of more than four decades of plutonium production. ORP is responsible for the retrieval, treatment and disposal of the waste in a safe, efficient manner.

Presentations by ORP, BNI and WRPS experts include:

“Hanford WTP LAW Melter Startup and Tuning Feed Material Development,” by Keith Witwer, who is with AECOM working at WTP. Witwer will describe a new non-hazardous feed material that could be used prior to cold commissioning and that, by mimicking simulations, could allow for tuning of key systems such as melter feeding and off-gas treatment systems. The discussion focuses on this new “tuning feed” material for the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility at WTP.

“Technical Issues Resolution,” a panel featuring ORP and BNI experts who will lay out technical challenges faced at WTP’s Pretreatment Facility and how, over the past several years, an integrated team developed testing programs to verify design and operations of equipment and control systems. The three most significant technical issues were resolved earlier this year. Panelists will include Felice Presti, BNI WTP area project manager for Pretreatment; Joni Grindstaff, ORP deputy Federal Project Director for WTP; and Hamel.

“Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System (LAWPS) Technology Maturation Program and Scaled Testing Results,” by Matt Landon of WRPS, explains the pretreatment technologies that will be used in the LAWPS facility to separate low-activity waste from tank waste.

“Hanford’s Double-Shell Tank AY-102 Retrieval Project,” by Carl Hanson of WRPS, details the retrieval of more than 725,000 gallons of waste from a double-shell tank that was taken out of service in 2012 when it was discovered to be leaking from the inner tank into the annulus.

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