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HANFORD

T Plant

The central part of the Hanford Site is 200 Area, also called the Central Plateau. 200 West has three processing plants, T Plant, U Plant and REDOX (Reduction-Oxidation). T Plant construction began on June 22, 1943 and was completed October 8, 1944. This was the first and largest of the separations plants at Hanford. The first batch of irradiated fuel rods from B Reactor was processed on December 26-27, 1944. Fuel reprocessing activities were terminated in 1956. In 1957, T Plant resumed service as a decontamination and repair facility.

Equipment with high-level contamination enters T Plant's huge work area, known as the 221-T canyon, through a railroad tunnel. The equipment is hoisted, by a crane, off the rail car and placed in the decontamination area on the canyon deck. T Plant workers then utilize several types of decontamination processes to clean up the equipment, depending on the type and level of contamination. For example, the equipment can be sprayed with a high pressure liquid or sand blasted. A major piece of eqipment can be disassembled down to the last screw and bolt, decontamined, repaired, painted and reassembled in like-new condition. Once decontaminated, repaired and tested, the equipment is returned to the original owner on the site or stored until it is needed.

The T Plant currently provides high-level and low-level decontamination and repair. Most old process equipment in the 221-T Canyon cells is decontaminated. High-level decontamination is performed on drill strings (sampling equipment) from the tank farms. The 2706-T Facility is used to decontaminate railroad equipment, buses, automobiles, road building equipment, and plant processing equipment containing low-level contamination. Items exceeding 100 mrad/hour near the surface or having detectable alpha contamination are not allowed in 2706-T unless approved. Canyon pool cell number 2, 221-T Building, stores roughly 132 kilograms of fissile uranium and plutonium, distributed throughout 16,600 kilograms of fuel (72 Core II blanket assemblies). The 221-T Canyon contains contaminated debris from other facilities (e.g., PUREX and REDOX chemical separation towers). Dry chemicals in quantities less than 2,000 pounds are potassium permanganate, sodium nitrate, potassium hydroxide, ammonium oxalate, oxalic acid, citric acid, sodium hydroxide, and sodium carbonate. There are 114 employees, including 27 crafts and 24 health physics personnel.