A panel at the Department of Energy has authorized startup of the Tank-Side Cesium Removal project, according to the latest available weekly staff report on operations at the Hanford Site in Washington state from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.

 “The DOE Startup Authorization Authority for the TSCR [Tank-Side Cesium Removal] system approved its startup,” the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff said in a report dated Jan. 14 and posted in recent days on the board’s website. “The contractor is expected to complete preparations and use the system to start production scale pre-treatment of low-activity waste next week.”

The acting head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, senior adviser William (Ike) White, told a federal advisory board in December the project could start up in January.

The demonstration project that involves tank management contractor Washington River Protection Solutions and subcontractor AVANTech, among others, uses filtration and a shielded ion exchange system to remove radioactive cesium and undissolved solids from tank waste at Hanford. 

TSCR is an essential ingredient for the the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant to begin converting low-level liquid waste from Hanford’s tank farms into a glass form by the current goal of 2023.