Utah-based EnergySolutions has finished grouting and disposing of 1,000 gallons of liquid tank waste from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
EnergySolutions said in a Wednesday news release it had completed solidification and disposal of 1,000 gallons of mixed low-level waste from Hanford as part of the much-anticipated Test Bed Initiative demonstration.
Half of the 2,000 gallons of pretreated tank waste from the demonstration was taken to EnergySolutions’ Clive, Utah Disposal Facility on April 25. The other 1,000 gallons was sent by DOE to the Waste Control Specialists disposal facility in Andrews County, Texas.
After sampling, stabilization and solidifying the waste, EnergySolution said its 1,000-gallon disposal was completed May 29. EnergySolutions sent samples to an independent lab in order to confirm the work complied with Environmental Protection Agency hazardous waste standards.
“We appreciate the trust placed in us by the U.S. Department of Energy to safely manage, solidify and dispose of this Cold War-era legacy waste stream,” said EnergySolutions President and CEO Ken Robuck in the release.
Hanford has roughly 56 million gallons of liquid tank waste, left over from decades of plutonium production. Most of the radioactive waste is low-level and not all of it can be accommodated at the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant that can solidify waste into glass. DOE in recent years has actively explored grout as a lower-cost alternative to building a second plant to vitrify waste into glass.
“EnergySolutions stands ready to support the DOEs future Hanford tank farm initiatives,” the company said in the release.