Testing has been completed to demonstrate that fiber infrastructure and software are operational for a transfer line communications system between the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant and the AP Tank Farm at the Hanford Site.
The Hanford site in southeast Washington produced plutonium starting in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project that produced the first nuclear weapons, the site’s website said. The U.S. Department of Energy is managing cleanup at the site, which has several underground waste storage tanks organized into groups called farms, a fact sheet said.
Bechtel National Inc., contractor for Environmental Management Office of River Protection, will start operations at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant with tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions feeding pretreated low-level waste from the AP Tank Farm to the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, a news release said.
The testing will confirm that control room operators “on both ends of the transfer lines” will be able to communicate to verbally and visually confirm that the transfer is happening.
“This is an important step for the entire Hanford team and our collective mission of executing Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) Program operations to treat tank waste,” said Ricky Bang, division director for the Office of River Protection’s Tank Farms Program.
Nolan Wright, Washington River Protection Solutions instrumentation and controls engineer, said in the release that because the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Program’s control rooms will be operating “24/7,” communication is needed for seeing and hearing what’s being transferred.
“Testing like this makes sure our procedures and people are integrated and operating safely,” Wright said in the release.
The operations will involve up to 9,000 gallons of pretreated waste being sent daily from Tank AP-106 through transfer lines to the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility for immobilization in glass form, the release said.
“Successful completion of these tests is an important step in being able to show that both the fiber infrastructure and the software will be ready to operate across the interface,” Mark Esp, interface implementation engineer for Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant Mission Integration, said in the release. “Having transfer status and monitoring data available to both control rooms simultaneously will be beneficial when DFLAW operations begin.”
