TSCR resumes operations after months offline
The Hanford Site’s Tank-side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system is back in operation for the first time since February, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said in a Sept. 15 press release.
DOE contractor Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure (H2C) suspended operations Feb. 25 because Tank AP-106 was too full to take more pretreated waste from TSCR, according to the release.
Tank AP-106 currently has about 1 million gallons of pretreated waste from TSCR. Tank-106 serves as something of a staging area for the pretreated tank waste before it is sent on to Hanford’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), where the sludge is superheated and vitrified into solid glass logs.
Since WTP started operations in October 2025, it has received 242,000 gallons of pretreated TSCR waste from AP-106, according to the release.
“The restart underscores why Hanford is advancing a dual glass-plus-grout approach for appropriate treated waste streams,” Mat Irwin, assistant manager for tank waste operations, sad in the release. “Glass remains central to the mission, while grout could add another disposal path to reduce bottlenecks and support continued cleanup progress.”