The Vit Plant’s Analytical Laboratory team has completed a commissioning test of a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration system that uses a new filter design that exceeds nuclear industry standards and requirements. Finishing the test was a prerequisite for the laboratory team to begin using scientific equipment with radioactive materials, which is required for operations.

The Vit Plant team completed the first commissioning test for one of 37 remote-operated cranes inside the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility, bringing the plant one step closer to treating nuclear tank waste. The commissioning test was also the first for any system inside the LAW Facility. It demonstrated that a bridge crane can successfully reach components and lifting points of six vessels used in the process to immobilize liquid waste in a glass form safe for storage, a process known as vitrification.

The Hanford Vit Plant team recently finished all startup testing and system handovers for the Effluent Management Facility (EMF), marking its full transition into the commissioning phase. After startup testing for each EMF system was finished, the startup team documented the results, and each system was handed over to the plant management team to initiate commissioning. The commissioning phase ensures the utilities and process systems are integrated and ready to support future plant operations. The only remaining DFLAW startup activities are within the Low-Activity Waste Facility, which houses the melters.

The Hanford Vit Plant team has finished creating almost 5,500 step-by-step procedures required for operation of Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) systems and facilities needed for Hanford’s Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) approach to tank waste treatment.

The word “rad” has finally arrived at the Hanford Vit Plant, and it’s not for a 1980s throwback. Instead, more than 450 workers at the plant will receive radiological, or “rad,” worker training as the plant nears commissioning, when operators will run a nonradioactive waste simulant through the plant to ensure systems are working properly.

Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) is hiring and training dozens of laboratory and radiological technicians at Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant to prepare for cold commissioning, when operators will run a non-radioactive waste simulant through the plant to ensure systems are working properly. The first class of 12 new laboratory technicians is in training.

The Vit Plant team has started training commissioning technicians and supervisors to monitor and manage the two 300-ton melters in the Low-Activity Waste Facility that are at the heart of the process of vitrifying, or immobilizing in glass, Hanford tank waste using the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) approach. Twenty commissioning technicians and four control room supervisors recently began their training at the plant’s simulator building, an offsite duplicate of the LAW Facility control room.

The Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) and Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) recently declared the Hanford Vit Plant’s Analytical Laboratory “Ready to Operate” for transforming low-activity waste into an immobilized form safe for storage.