RICHLAND, Wash. - EM’s Office of River Protection (ORP) last week approved a critical safety basis plan needed before Hanford ’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) can begin vitrifying low-activity tank waste.
The Documented Safety Analysis (DSA) outlines the potential hazards associated with treating the waste and ways operators will control those hazards to protect workers, the public, and the environment when the plant comes online as soon as 2022. DSAs are a federal requirement, setting rules for safety controls at DOE nuclear facilities.
Over the next few years, ORP and WTP contractor Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI) will implement the DSA to prepare the workforce to bring the Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility online, also known as the hot commissioning phase. This includes creating the safety programs, commissioning procedures, and training and maintenance plans needed to execute hot commissioning.
“We remain on pace to turn over the Low-Activity Waste Facility from the construction phase to the startup and testing phase this summer," said Brian Reilly, BNI project director for WTP. “The DSA will play an important part in training, qualifying, and preparing the workforce as we move closer to the hot commissioning phase."
The LAW Facility DSA outlines the design and safety controls needed to comply with DOE nuclear safety requirements and standards. To complete the DSA, a team of nuclear safety engineers participated in an extensive hazards analysis, identified and closed anticipated challenges, and established the controls for radioactive and hazardous materials. Then, ORP completed an independent Safety Evaluation Report, which allowed ORP to approve the DSA.
“Having an approved Documented Safety Analysis provides further confidence that the LAW Facility can safely treat low-activity waste," explained Brian Vance, ORP manager. “This provides a benchmark and standard for our safety oversight to prepare for operations."
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
