The Hanford Site Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant conducted an emergency drill for their ammonia leak response.
The WTP, located in Richland, Wash., carried out the emergency preparedness drills in order to simulate responding to an ammonia leak, according to an April 11 U.S. Department of Energy Environmental Management news release. This is a part of a series of drills prior to the plant getting ammonia for its emissions treatment system.
“These drills are an important piece in our efforts to prepare our team and the site for direct-feed low-activity waste operations to treat low-activity tank waste,” Rick Holmes, general manager for Waste Treatment Completion Company, said in the release. “Our emergency preparedness team has done an excellent job in building a robust preparation process by holding frequent drills and exercises of increasing complexity to build proficiency in responding to a wide variety of emergencies.”
During the drill, the Facility Emergency Response Organization team practiced detecting ammonia contamination around the facility using different monitoring devices that are available, the release reported.
Professionals who have also undergone the drills also shared what they learned with the current employees, according to the release. The WTP staff has put together new tours of their ammonia system facilities for the Hanford Fire Department and Hanford Mission Integration Solutions Emergency Preparedness team.
Meanwhile, the treated waste from Hanford's underground storage tanks will be directly fed into melters which are located inside the WTP's Low-Activity Waste Facility during the direct-feed low-activity waste daily operations, the release reported. The process of mixing the waste with glass-forming materials before being heated is known as vitrification.
"During the vitrification process, the melters will release pollutants in their exhaust," the release reported. "The Low-Activity Waste Facility emissions treatment systems will use ammonia to create a chemical reaction that eliminates these materials and produces the harmless byproducts of nitrogen, oxygen and water."
Waste Treatment Completion Company is a subcontractor to Bechtel National Inc., which is designing, building and commissioning the WTP for EM’s Office of River Protection, the release said.
