The Department of Energy’s Defense Waste Processing Facility, which turns radioactive tank waste into glass form at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, is now 30 years old.
The facility for vitrifying tank waste into glass was commissioned in March 1996 by Hazel O’Leary, secretary of energy during the Bill Clinton administration, DOE noted in a March 12 press release.
Over time, the Defense Waste Processing Facility has churned out over 17 million pounds of glass and filled more than 4,500 canisters and that amounts to more than half of the canisters expected to be filled, DOE said.
The plant is run by BWX Technologies-led Savannah River Mission Completion, which also includes Amentum and Fluor. It’s worth noting that is basically the same partnership lineup at Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure (H2C). H2C will eventually take over vitrification at the Waste Treatment Plant in Richland Wash., from Bechtel, which built that plant. The Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford started making glass in October 2025.