The Tank-Side Cesium Removal project at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a key cog in the Department of Energy’s plan to begin bulk solidification of liquid radioactive waste there next year, could start up in January, according to a recent memo from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
“DOE Hanford is working with the contractor to establish a January date to start pre-processing of staged, low-activity, waste,” according to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff report on activity at the cleanup site for the week ended Dec. 17.
Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk gave the project the green light late last year after the agency’s Energy Systems Acquisition Advisory Board recommended approval of the project’s critical decision-4a milestone.
William “Ike” White, the senior advisor for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) told a meeting of the EM advisory board chairs in December that a January startup looked likely for the Tank-side Cesium Removal (TSCR) project.
AVANTech, a subcontractor to the Amentum-led tank-farm prime, Washington River Protection Solutions, designed the $164-million TSCR project.
TSCR was designed to remove radioactive cesium and undissolved solids from radioactive tank waste at Hanford in preparation for vitrification of the low-level waste into a glass form once the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant begins running by the end of 2023.
After going through TSCR, waste will be held in a double-shell tank until it is fed into the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment Plant for vitrification.
Editor’s note: Article modified at 7:42 a.m. on Tuesday Jan. 18 to correct fifth paragraph.
