Hanford Vit Plant2

Client: Department of Energy
General Contractor: Bechtel National
Contract partner: Mirion Technologies
Project Description: Process Video Systems
Project Timeline: 2003 – Ongoing

Hanford Waste Treatment Plant

In southeastern Washington State, Bechtel National, Inc. is designing, constructing, and commissioning the world’s largest radioactive waste treatment plant for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). When complete, the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), will process and stabilize much of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste currently stored at the Hanford Site. The waste, a byproduct of national defense plutonium-production efforts during World War II and the Cold War era, resides in 177 aging underground tanks. Of these, more than one-third have already leaked, contaminating the subsurface and threatening the nearby Columbia River. The plant will use vitrification technology, which involves blending the waste with glass-forming materials and heating it to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit (1,149 degrees Celsius). This mixture is poured into stainless steel canisters to cool and solidify. In this glass form, the waste is stable and impervious to the environment, and its radioactivity will safely dissipate over hundreds to thousands of years.

Hanford Vit Plant-3

Site at Sunset Jan 2022

The AES Systems team has engineered, built, tested, delivered, and supported commissioning efforts on site of the facility process video management system. The system was designed and built to the stringent requirements of remote operations including near-zero video latency to allow operators to manipulate and control plant processes. System design also features high reliability and long-term digital storage of critical video. The video process system allows operators to monitor and control the vitrification process from the central control room as well as local operator stations throughout the plant. The video management system is a hybrid system combining multiple types of cameras from large through-wall radiation hardened cameras to HD thermography cameras monitoring the fill level of glass inside stainless-steel containers. AES Systems is excited to be a part of such a critical environmental project and look forward to supporting the process for decades to come.

Factory Built Process Video Cabinets And Gui Workstations

Factory built Process Video Cabinets and GUI Workstations

Project highlights include:

  • GUI remote control of all camera functions
  • Radiation Hardened video cameras
  • Integration with instrumentation systems
  • Crane mounted cameras
  • Hybrid computer-based video management system
  • Fiber-optic system infrastructure
  • Engineered for extremely low video latency of less than 20ms
  • Mass data storage for archiving digitized video
  • Each system phase is built, programmed, and completely tested at AES Systems facility
  • Digital management of 120 input by 228 output analog matrix switching system
  • System utilizes hardware redundancy as well as fail-over of video management, switching, and archive systems
Factory Testing

Factory Testing

Links for additional project information:
https://www.hanfordvitplant.com/
https://www.bechtel.com/projects/hanford-waste-treatment-plant/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site