High-Level & Tank Waste

A pair of steel canisters did not pass their leak tests at the Savannah River Site’s Defense Waste Processing Facility, but were still then filled with glass-immobilized waste and stored in the site’s Glass Waste Storage Building, according to a report posted online recently by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. As of Aug. 18, the canisters […]

Hanford Site contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS)  expects in October to resume removal of waste from a leaky tank at the former Department of Energy plutonium production facility. The tank farm manager has removed all but the bottom layer of 750,000 gallons of chemical and radioactive waste once held in double-shell Tank AY-102. Roughly […]

The Savannah River Site’s Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) waste management committee last week approved a recommendation to provide adequate funding to expedite liquid waste processing at the Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. Now, the recommendation will be taken up at a full board meeting next month. If approved there it will be sent to the Department of […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology said Tuesday it had fined the Department of Energy and Hanford Site cleanup contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation Co. $50,000 for not following regulations for storage of dangerous waste at the facility’s T Plant. The state also ordered DOE and its contractor to designate waste, to obtain detailed analysis of […]

The Savannah River Site in South Carolina is scheduled to begin double-stacking canisters of solidified radioactive waste before the end of the summer, according to a press release Monday. The stacking is intended to save space at the Department of Energy site’s Glass Waste Storage Building 1, delaying the need to build another storage facility. […]

Millions of dollars in fines are still possible over missed milestones at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), though South Carolina regulators will not confirm or deny if they’ll impose the penalties after nearly a year of meetings with the federal government on the issue. The Savannah River Site celebrated the facility’s […]

Personnel were ordered to leave a Hanford Site tank farm Wednesday morning and access was restricted after three workers reported smelling odors consistent with chemical vapors associated with tank waste. The incident occurred despite Hanford tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions complying with a federal court order issued Tuesday in an effort to prevent […]

The University of South Carolina (USC) has received an $8 million grant for research aimed at speeding up nuclear waste treatment at the Savannah River Site and other facilities where waste is being stored. The goal is to reconfigure the way the waste is stored. The university announced on July 27 that it had received the […]

Millions of dollars in fines are still possible over missed milestones at the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), though South Carolina regulators will not confirm or deny if they’ll impose the penalties after nearly a year of meetings with the federal government on the issue. The Savannah River Site celebrated the facility’s […]

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Department of Energy and contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) to take interim steps already proposed by DOE to protect Hanford Site workers from chemical vapors at the waste storage tank farms. Washington state, the nongovernmental Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598 last month filed […]

South Carolina and the Environmental Protection Agency have refused to give the Energy Department more time to close two liquid waste tanks at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., and the parties are slated to meet in August in an attempt to resolve the deadlock, an EPA official said Tuesday. In a presentation Tuesday […]

Hanford Site tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has cut back on work to prepare the A and AX tank farms for waste retrieval following the mandate that more work be conducted on supplied air respirators. The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) on July 11 issued a stop work order inside all […]

South Carolina and the Environmental Protection Agency have refused to give the Energy Department more time to close two liquid waste tanks at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C., and the parties are slated to meet in August in an attempt to resolve the deadlock, an EPA official said Tuesday. In a presentation Tuesday […]

The Nuclear Regulator Commission is questioning whether one of the leaky liquid high-level waste tanks the Energy Department has taken out of service at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, S.C., is sealed tightly enough to meet the agency’s strict radiation leak limits for the next several millennia. The concern — highlighted in a […]

Hanford Site tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has cut back on work to prepare the A and AX tank farms for waste retrieval following the mandate that more work be conducted on supplied air respirators. The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) on July 11 issued a stop work order inside all Hanford […]

The Energy Department and Hanford Site contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation have asked the Washington state Ecology Department for permission to uproot two drained waste tanks at the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, according to a permit modification request dated July 11 and posted online Monday. The plant, known as PUREX, is located in the 200 East […]

The state of Washington stepped up a lawsuit against the Energy Department and the prime contractor for the Hanford Site tank farm over worker exposure to chemical vapors by asking a federal judge Thursday to mandate protective gear and other safety measures around waste storage at the Department of Energy facility near Richland, Wash. Washington Attorney […]

The Energy Department and Hanford Site contractor CH2M Plateau Remediation have asked the Washington state Ecology Department for permission to uproot two drained waste tanks at the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, according to a permit modification request dated July 11 and posted online Monday. The plant, known as PUREX, is located in the 200 East Area […]

Savannah River Remediation (SRR) has hired Westinghouse Electric Co. to enhance cesium removal from the highly radioactive liquid waste in storage tanks at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Department of Energy announced this week that the fixed-price subcontract is worth $12.4 million. Westinghouse will design, build, and deliver the equipment for the tank […]

Work continued at the Hanford Site tank farms this week after tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) honored a stop work order by requiring all work in those areas to be done on supplied air respirators. The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) on Monday issued the stop work order to protect workers […]

An engineering test vessel for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site arrived in Richland, Wash., near the former plutonium production plant Wednesday after a daylong barge ride from a supplier’s facility in Vancouver, Wash., the WTP prime said in a series of social media posts. The cylindrical 16-foot-diameter by 38-foot-tall […]

A permit modification essential for getting the Hanford site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) in Richland, Wash., ready to treat low-level liquid radioactive waste in 2022 went out for public comment Monday. The modification would allow Bechtel National to install melting pots required for the Low-Activity Waste Facility (LAW) that is part of DOE’s strategy for […]

An engineering test vessel for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site arrived in Richland, Wash., near the former plutonium production plant Wednesday after a daylong barge ride from a supplier’s facility in Vancouver, Wash., the WTP prime said in a series of social media posts. The cylindrical 16-foot-diameter by 38-foot-tall […]

A permit modification essential for getting the Hanford site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) in Richland, Wash., ready to treat low-level liquid radioactive waste in 2022 went out for public comment Monday. The modification would allow Bechtel National to install melting pots required for the Low-Activity Waste Facility (LAW) that is part of DOE’s strategy for treating […]

The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) called a halt to all work at the Hanford Site tank farms Monday without mandatory use of a supplied air respirator to protect workers from chemical vapors. “The Council hereby provides official notification that a standing stop work order is now in full force and effect until such […]

About 45 non-manual workers at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant will be told next week that their jobs are ending anytime from late August through October. The layoffs are part of a change in the mix of workers needed as the vitrification plant project “is reaching a transition point as we drive toward completing the […]

NuVision Engineering of Pittsburgh, a supplier for San Francisco-based Bechtel National on the multibillion-dollar Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) facility under construction at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site, is suing the prime in federal court for almost $2 million in costs the smaller company alleges it incurred because of delays building the enormous facility. The equipment at […]

Broken pumps that transfer sludge waste from the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) Defense Waste Processing Facility back into the site’s H Area Tank Farm are being replaced with used pumps from the site’s F Area Tank Farm, the Energy Department and prime SRS liquid waste cleanup contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) announced Wednesday. The joint […]

The Department of Energy is seeking bids on an estimated 10-year, $4 billion-$6 billion liquid cleanup contract at the Savannah River Site (SRS), in a long-awaited procurement that hit the street late Thursday that includes the permanent disposal of millions of tons of salt waste at the Aiken, S.C., facility. The department currently envisions an eight-year […]

Broken pumps that transfer sludge waste from the Savannah River Site’s (SRS) Defense Waste Processing Facility back into the site’s H Area Tank Farm are being replaced with used pumps from the site’s F Area Tank Farm, the Energy Department and prime SRS liquid waste cleanup contractor Savannah River Remediation (SRR) announced Wednesday. The joint press release said […]