Bechtel has awarded Greenberry Industrial a purchase order to build a 16-foot-diameter by 38-foot-tall stainless steel test vessel for use at the Hanford Vit Plant.

Greenberry is a small business with operations in several cities, including Vancouver, Washington, where the vessel is being fabricated. Because of its size, the vessel will be barged up the Columbia River from Vancouver to Richland in early 2016.

In Richland, it will be installed in a facility specifically designed for full-scale testing of vessels used to properly mix and safely store radioactive liquid waste at the Vit Plant. The nonradioactive testing is expected to be completed in 2017.

“This is the next step in a testing process that earlier this spring confirmed that our half-scale or 8-foot-diameter design was ready to proceed to full-scale testing at 16 feet,” said Felice Presti, area project manager for the Vit Plant for Bechtel.