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| Parsons announces transport of contactors to SWPF With construction of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF) well under way, Parsons announced that the contactors have arrived at the facility and have been lifted into place (contactors are vessels in which key interactive activities occur with the waste streams and are core elements of the SWPF). Construction of the SWPF is among the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) highest cleanup priorities. This facility is a key component of the DOE's commitment to reduce risk at the Savannah River Site (SRS) by removing, treating, and disposing of waste stored in underground tanks. In 2003, the DOE awarded Parsons a contract to design, construct, commission, and operate for 1 year the SWPF to accomplish this important environmental cleanup initiative. CINC Industries, located in Carson City, Nevada, built the individual contactors, and Wright Industries Incorporated (WII) in Nashville, Tennessee, assembled them into two 18-contactor modules. The contactor modules include the frame, interconnecting vent, and drain piping. Each of the two modules weighs approximately 90 tons. They were transported from Nashville on 215-ft-long "super" trucks to distribute the 400,000-lb load over 20 axles to meet Department of Transportation requirements. The two trucks left Nashville on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, and traveled through Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and South Carolina—finally reaching SRS on December 3, 2010. A specialty crane was used to transfer the contactor modules from the trucks to their final location inside SWPF at SRS. Once SWPF is operational, the contactors will basically act as a mixer/separator to trap and then separate the majority of the cesium from the tank farm waste. The cesium-laden stream will be processed into glass canisters at the Defense Waste Processing Facility while the decontaminated tank farm waste is processed into a grout formulation at the Saltstone Production Facility. write your comments about the article :: © 2010 Construction News :: home page |