Bertha, the tunnel-boring machine that recently completed a 9,270-ft tunneling journey underneath downtown Seattle has reached the halfway point of another milestone: disassembly.
Following a partial tunnel collapse in May at Hanford’s Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, a facility unused since the 1980s, a report from DOE and its contractor for the area, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., says a second facility tunnel, which once processed chemicals needed in nuclear production, does not meet current standards.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) says the new contracting arrangement pioneered by Bechtel National Inc. on the Dept. of Energy’s Hanford nuclear-waste site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant—a $16.8-billion project now four times above its original budget, with 17 years of added schedule—comes with risk to taxpayers.
All the new Oregon transportation bill needs now is a signature from Gov. Kate Brown, an expected event after the $5.3 billion, 10-year package passed both the Oregon House and Oregon Senate.
It really doesn’t come at a great surprise that the second waste tunnel associated with the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant (PUREX) at the Dept. of Energy’s Hanford Nuclear Waste Site in southeast Washington is at risk of collapse.
For anyone wanting to get a peak under the shield of Bertha, the 57.5-ft-diameter tunnel-boring machine that dug a 1.7-mile tunnel under downtown Seattle, now is the time.
The completion of the first of two 300-ton nuclear waste melters at Hanford’s Vit Plant has contractor Bechtel National Inc. looking forward to continued progress on what is arguably the nation’s most complex construction project.
As demolition continued on the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant on June 8, one of the two dozen air monitoring stations positioned around the site sounded an alarm after detecting low levels of contamination.
A $10.4 million fix to replace what was supposed to solve all sorts of slippery situations on Portland’s Morrison Bridge over the Willamette River has started.
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