RICHLAND, Wash. - Collaboration between two EM sites thousands of miles apart will result in a safer, more efficient risk-reduction effort involving the relocation of radioactive capsules.
Workers at the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) in New York state will share lessons learned and equipment with employees at the Hanford Site in Washington state, as the Hanford team prepares to move the 1,936 cesium and strontium capsules to dry storage. The two teams recently met at WVDP.
Last year, WVDP contractor CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley (CHBWV) finished relocating nearly 280 canisters of vitrified high-level waste from the Main Plant Process Building to an onsite interim storage pad, a necessary step to support the building's eventual demolition.
"The West Valley high-level waste relocation team was very excited to share their successes and lessons learned. The technology and equipment, as well as the procedures and processes, will help improve safety and lower overall project costs for the Hanford project. Understanding the differences in the projects also allowed the West Valley team to offer suggestions relative to minor design changes or use of equipment," said Lettie Chilson, CHBWV high-level waste project engineer.
EM Richland Operations Office and its contractor CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company (CH2M HILL) plan to relocate the capsules from underwater storage at the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF) to dry storage casks on a storage pad.
Dry storage is safer and more efficient than the WESF pool cells and supports future building deactivation. Like West Valley’s storage pad, the Hanford pad will be modeled after dry spent fuel storage systems that use passive cooling at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The systems feature above-ground, shielded cask storage requiring little maintenance and no supplementary ventilation.
“The people we met were very knowledgeable and talked about planning, procedures and simulating the work in a nonradioactive setting, also known as mockups," said Jim Wabaunsee, WESF nuclear chemical operator. “They shared with us their lessons learned and how they safely overcame the hazards they encountered."
The Hanford team also viewed a hauling vehicle for moving the casks to outdoor storage. It will be transferred to Hanford, allowing RL to avoid the cost of purchasing one.
“As we move forward with planning and design, to procurement, and eventually through the work itself, we will continue working with the West Valley team to share more knowledge and equipment," said Mark Buckmaster, CH2M HILL Management of Cesium and Strontium Capsules (MCSC) project manager.
Design work for the MCSC project is scheduled to be completed in fiscal 2018, followed by construction and capsule transfer.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
