Massive Hanford plant controls 10-ton radioactive waste crane for 1st time

Hanford vitrification plant workers have successfully operated a 10-ton, remote-control crane in the part of the $17 billion plant that contains radioactive waste.

It’s the first time a control room at the plant has operated a piece of equipment as Bechtel National works toward startup of the plant to meet a federal-court-ordered deadline to have the plant treating waste in 2023.

“Movement of the finish line transfer hoist is a great achievement for the project and a major step in the ongoing progress towards vitrifying waste,” said Julian Leam, senior mechanical handling test engineer for Bechtel National subcontractor Waste Treatment Completion Co.

Remote operation of the crane adds confidence that the rest of the handling systems that will move containers through the facility to be filled with vitrified waste will work as planned, he said.

Containers filled with glassified waste will move through the plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility to its exit bay on a series of tracks called the “finishing line.”

Work on the line includes sampling the vitrified waste, putting on lids and making sure the exterior of the container is clean.

The finish line hoist system lifts the filled containers between the north and south finishing lines, with employees in a control room operating the crane using cameras and monitors to see what they are doing. The control room opened this summer.

The vitrification plant has been under construction since 2002 to turn up to 56 million gallons of radioactive waste into a solid glass form for disposal.

The waste is left from World War II and Cold War production of plutonium at the site for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.