United States Parsons Tender

Parsons Corporation has completed all necessary steps to begin the treatment of radioactive waste at the Department of Energys DOE Salt Waste Processing Facility SWPF in Aiken SC. The purpose-built facility from conceptual design to operations is the first of its kind and will process the sites salt waste at seven to eight times the rate it is being processed today.This historic milestone is only possible because of the strong partnership and commitment from the Department of Energy said Chuck Harrington chief executive officer of Parsons. The innovations of SWPF will forever change how we remediate nuclear waste and ensure that a cleaner more sustainable and environmentally sensitive world is possible for the future.In 2002 the DOE selected Parsons to design build commission and operate SWPF with the goal of processing 31million gallons of radioactive salt waste stored in underground tanks at the Savannah River Site SRS. Removing salt waste which fills over 90 of tank space in the SRS tank farms is a major step toward emptying and closing the sites remaining 43 high-level waste tanks. Parsons finished building SWPF in April 2016 eightmonths ahead of schedule and more than 65million under the target cost of the contract for construction activities.The startup of SWPF and the increased treatment capacity will save billions of dollars in overall operational costs by reducing the number of years needed to accomplish the nuclear remediation mission said Chris Alexander executive vice president and engineered systems market leader for Parsons. When operational the SWPF will significantly increase processing rates over the existing interim system and speed the effort to empty the sites waste tanks. Its key mission is to separate and concentrate highly radioactive waste mostly cesium strontium actinides and waste slurry from the less-radioactive salt solution.After completing the initial separation process the concentrated high-activity waste will be sent to the nearby Defense Waste Processing Facility where it will be immobilized in glass and stored in vaults until it can be placed in a geological repository. The decontaminated salt solution will be mixed with cement-like grout at the nearby Saltstone facility for disposal on site.