Parsons, along with eleven other companies, receives nuclear waste advanced remediation technology contract

As the debate over the economic feasability of building new nuclear power plants continues—see, for instance, the recent industry round-up in the New York Times—and the evironmental problems remain unresolved, the question of how to handle the waste of cold war-era reactors remains equally unsettled. Readers no doubt are familiar with the Yucca Mountain controversy, but before nuclear waste can be laid to eternal rest it must be cleaned and prepared, and so the Department of Energy (DOE) has just awarded Parsons two advanced technology development contracts for its Continuous Sludge Leaching and Near Tank Cesium Removal technologies. Once fully developed, the systems are to be deployed to DOE’s Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington, and the Defense Waste Processing Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

Parson’s deal is just one of twelve six month fixed-price contracts totalling $3.3 million awarded by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) to “support the development of technologies that have the potential to reduce cleanup costs and increase the safety and efficiency of treating and disposing of radioactive waste.” The department will evaluate the proposals at the end of the six-month contract period and select those technologies which can provide the greatest benefit to the department’s cleanup mission for further development.

Accorording to DOE, companies also receiving contracts under the same plan include: ARES Corporation for single-shell heel removal; TMR Associates for tank heel removal, North Wind for subsurface characterization; Commodore Advanced Sciences, for metals separation; Cogema (two awards), for cold crucible induction melter and tank waste alumina recovery; THOR Treatment Technologies for treatment of Hanford and Savannah River site high level waste; Gas Technology Institute for submerged combustion melting; and ARCADIS G&M, for groundwater remediation.

-read more in this DOE press release; read more about the business of nuclear reactors in this New York Times report; Parsons company Website