Weapons Complex Monitor Vol. 34 No. 30
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Weapons Complex Monitor
Article 4 of 12
July 28, 2023

DOE to start baking cost of grout into upcoming Hanford system plan analysis

By Wayne Barber

At the request of the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Energy will start including costs for grouting some tank waste as part of its long-term planning for the Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a report released this week.

In the report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends DOE consider, in consultation with Washington state, supplementing the next “system plan revision” to include speeding up remediation of low-level radioactive tank waste by solidifying some of it in a concrete-like grout.

The DOE and the Washington Department of Ecology update a river protection system plan every three years. It is a computer modeling analysis of cost and schedule projections for key technical scenarios for cleanup of the former plutonium production complex.

DOE agreed with GAO’s recommendation and plans to make the change by the end of 2025, according to the 34-page report.

DOE must retrieve and treat about 54 million gallons of radioactive waste stored in 177 aging and leak-prone underground tanks. Grouting much of the waste could expedite cleanup and be $10 billion to $24 billion cheaper than vitrifying all of it into a glass-like form, GAO said. 

The current plan is to convert about 60% of the low-level radioactive waste into glass through the Direct-Feed-Low-Activity-Waste Facilities at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. DOE would treat the remaining supplemental low-activity waste in a second, and not yet built, vitrification facility, GAO said.

But grout has been the subject of increasing focus in recent years thanks in part to recent reports by the Savannah River National Laboratory, which are being vetted by a National Academies of Sciences panel, GAO noted in the report.

In some federal research, DOE has been mulling options that would potentially enable it to begin grouting leftover low-activity tank waste as early as 2027, much sooner than scenarios contemplated by a DOE’s Hanford system plan now under development, GAO said.

Grout backers say the practice can open the door to out-of-state shipment of the grouted waste to commercial disposal sites in Texas or Utah, GAO said. DOE is planning a 2,000-gallon test-bed demonstration of the grouting technique. 

Washington and DOE disagree on whether current regulations allow large-scale deployment of grout for Hanford, GAO said. 

“In light of this disagreement, we have called for Congress to consider action that would facilitate DOE’s ability to continue studying the feasibility of grouting” of Hanford’s low-level waste, GAO wrote in the report.

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NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)

DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.



by @BenjaminSWeiss, confirming today's reports with warrant from Las Vegas Metro PD.

Waste has been Emplaced! 🚮

We have finally begun emplacing defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of #WIPP.

Read more about the waste emplacement here: https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20221123-2.asp

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