Over 20 containers of low-level radioactive sludge have now been solidified into a glass form at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, feds said this week.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management said in a Tuesday news release that the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) built by Bechtel National recently reached the 20-container milestone. As of Tuesday, 22 had been filled, according to a DOE representative.
“Each container represents tangible progress in the mission to protect the Columbia River and community,” said Mat Irwin, the Hanford Field Office assistant manager for WTP.
There are roughly 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste at Hanford left over from decades of producing plutonium for the government. The liquid waste has long been held in 177 underground tanks, many of them leaking.
The first pretreated tank waste was run through the Direct-Feed-Low-Activity Waste Facility in early October, when hot commissioning started. Inside that facility’s two 300-ton melters, chemical and radioactive waste is mixed with glass-forming materials, such as silica and sucrose, and then super-heated to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The DFLAW facility has turned 36,000 gallons of low-level radioactive waste into glass form since October, DOE said.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright visited the waste vitrification plant this past weekend. Wright and Tim Walsh, the head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management posted a video about the plant on LinkedIn.
“I was honored to show U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright the tremendous progress on full display at Hanford,” Walsh said in a DOE press release. “I congratulate Ray Geimer and his team, our contractor partners and hardworking craftworkers for advancing our critical missions at Hanford. I look forward to building relationships across Hanford, regulators, Congress, tribes, and the community to advance cleanup solutions, unleash economic vitality and unlock potential in the Tri-Cities.”
For now, the facility is only solidifying less-radioactive waste, and solidification of high-level waste is expected to start around 2033.