Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant

The Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, known as the Vit Plant, is a facility for nuclear waste vitrification at the Hanford Site in Washington. Unlike the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility at Hanford, designed to hold tens of millions of tons of low-level waste, the Vit Plant is designed to immobilize smaller quantities of high-level waste including plutonium. According to prime contractor Bechtel it was designed for 56,000,000 US gallons (210,000,000 l; 47,000,000 imp gal) of liquid waste.[1]

Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant in 2012

It was designed to be the world's largest vitrification plant.[2]

According to a 2012 Government Accountability Office report, several technical challenges remained, including how to keep radioactive waste from incurring a criticality accident and exploding before it was vitrified.[3] As of 2017, the project was undergoing "ongoing" reviews by the Government Accounting Office, Office of Inspector General, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and other agencies, with a re-baselined projected cost of $16.813 billion and completion date in 2023.[4]

Location

The plant is in Hanford Site's 200 area (46°33′N 119°30′W).[5][1]

References
  1. About the Hanford Vit Plant Project, Bechtel Inc., retrieved 2017-09-11
  2. Dan Chasan (June 20, 2012), "Is Hanford stuck with the hot waste?", Crosscut.com
  3. HANFORD WASTE TREATMENT PLANT: DOE Needs to Take Action to Resolve Technical and Management Challenges, Government Accountability Office, December 19, 2012, GAO-13-38
  4. William F. Hamel (March 22, 2017), Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant – Rebaseline and Contract Modification Proposal Process / 2017 Project Management Workshop (PDF), United States Department of Energy Office of River Protection
  5. Hanford Site 200 Area, United States Department of Energy Richland Operations Office
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