The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington is expected to start operations this week with only one melter in operation, an Oregon panel heard last week.
The plant, designed to vitrify radioactive liquid tank waste into a glass-like solid, will start up this week operating only one of its two melters operating, the Oregon Department of Energy’s Hanford Cleanup Board heard last week.
The Oregon board received a briefing from the Washington state Department of Ecology officials, including Stephanie Schlief, nuclear waste program manager. Ecology said that within six months or 240,000 gallons treated, the federal DOE’s Hanford Site must start up the second melter and test both melters during “dual use.”
The multi-billion-dollar plant will use vitrification, which involves mixing the waste with glass-forming materials and heating it to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit inside large melters, according to a Hanford website. This mixture will then be poured into stainless steel canisters to cool and solidify into a glass form.
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management confirmed last week the first glass had been transferred to the Direct-Feed-Low-Activity-Waste Facility at the WTP. DOE has an Oct. 15 deadline to start making glass from some of the less radioactive tank waste at the site.
Hanford has 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous waste held in 177 underground tanks. The waste is a byproduct of plutonium production for the U.S. nuclear weapons program.