The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has for the first time shipped tank waste off-site for treatment and disposal. Three gallons of low-activity radioactive waste were sent in October to a nearby Perm-Fix Environmental Services facility to be grouted. It is then expected to be sent for disposal at the Waste Control Specialists Federal Waste Facility in Andrews County, Texas.
In a report issued in September, the Energy Communities Alliance urged the Department of Energy to proceed with the Hanford Test Bed Initiative (TBI), a three-phase effort to demonstrate the feasibility of treating and disposing of waste off-site as a possible alternative for disposing of some Hanford low-activity tank waste. The Waste Treatment Plant, being built at Hanford to treat up to 56 million gallons of waste, was not designed to treat all of the former plutonium production complex’s low-activity tank waste in a reasonable time. Grouting waste that would be sent off-site for disposal also is a possibility for some secondary waste from the Waste Treatment Plant.
As outlined by the Energy Communities Alliance, the first phase of the Test Bed Initiative would involve treating 3 gallons of waste and expanding to 100,000 gallons or more in phase three. “Continued progress on the TBI is important to lay the foundation for future DOE decisions regarding the potential for treating, stabilizing and disposing of Hanford LAW (low activity waste) in a form other than glass,” the Energy Communities Alliance report said. “If the test proves successful, the concept could allow tank closures at Hanford to be dramatically accelerated, reducing cleanup costs by billions of dollars and resulting in decades of schedule improvement.”
Workers with Hanford waste tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions were told in an employee newsletter that “this study does not impact or imply a change to DOE’s initial planned treatment option to vitrify low-activity waste.” DOE plans to start vitrifying low-activity waste at the Waste Treatment Plant in 2022.