Two massive processing vessels, standing 40 feet tall and weighing 160 tons each, arrive by barge at the Columbia River Port of Benton to be offloaded by Lampson International.
Two massive processing vessels, standing 40 feet tall and weighing 160 tons each, arrive by barge at the Columbia River Port of Benton to be offloaded by Lampson International.

RICHLAND, Wash. – What weighs 160 tons, stands 40 feet tall, needs a barge and massive crane to transport, and will play a role in treating nuclear waste? A pair of vessels delivered recently to EM’s Hanford Office of River Protection Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP).

These vessels were transported up the Columbia River, offloaded at the Port of Benton in Richland, and delivered on a specialized trailer to the WTP at the Hanford Site. There, the vessels — called process condensate lag storage vessels — will be installed in the Effluent Management Facility (EMF), a key part of the Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) process for treating tank waste as early as 2022.

“These vessels are impressive in size. The planning and logistics to barge and deliver it was just as impressive,” said Scott Monson, area manager for DFLAW at Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI), the WTP Project contractor. “Now, the construction crew will take over and work to install them this summer.”

The EMF is part of the infrastructure complex that will support DFLAW, the plan for feeding waste directly from the Hanford tank farms to the Low-Activity Waste Facility. There, the waste will be blended with glass-forming materials and heated to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit.

During that process, called vitrification, secondary liquids are generated and then sent to EMF, where excess water is evaporated and transferred to Hanford’s nearby Liquid Effluent Retention Facility (LERF), while the remaining concentrate is sent back into the vitrification process. The two vessels will receive batches of concentrated liquid for storage while it’s being tested to ensure it meets regulatory requirements before being sent to the LERF for storage.

“The Effluent Management Facility is the last major construction project at the Waste Treatment Plant,” said Erik Olds, DFLAW deputy. “We have been working hard over the years and we can see those efforts are coming to fruition. You can feel the sense of urgency.”

The BNI logistics team worked closely with local company Lampson International, which managed the loading, unloading, and land hauling of the vessels.

“We’ve worked with Lampson throughout WTP construction, and on many DFLAW equipment deliveries,” said Valerie McCain, WTP project director for BNI. “We value working with local and regional companies in our mission to protect our community and the river.”

The BNI logistics team will stage the vessels outside the EMF before installing them by crane into the structure.