Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant
The Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, known as the Vit Plant, is a facility for nuclear waste vitrification at the Hanford Site in Washington. Unlike the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility at Hanford, designed to hold tens of millions of tons of low-level waste, the Vit Plant is designed to immobilize smaller quantities of high-level waste including plutonium. According to prime contractor Bechtel it was designed for of liquid waste.
It was designed to be the world's largest vitrification plant.
According to a 2012 Government Accountability Office report, several technical challenges remained, including how to keep radioactive waste from incurring a criticality accident and exploding before it was vitrified. As of 2017, the project was undergoing "ongoing" reviews by the Government Accounting
Office, Office of Inspector General, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and other agencies, with a re-baselined projected cost of $16.813 billion and completion date in 2023.Location
The plant is in Hanford Site's 200 area.
