The Department of Energy is investigating the source of dried radioactive waste found near a pipe-fitting at the Tank-Side Cesium Removal project at the Hanford Site in Washington state, a spokesperson said last week.
The ongoing review could show if there is a leak in the process piping in the Tank Side Cesium Removal system (TSCR) at Hanford, the Defense Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) said in a staff report dated Oct. 21.
Health physics technicians entered the TSCR enclosure and did tests showing “contamination exceeding the radiological work permit limits,” according to the DNFSB report. Tank operations contractor Washington River Protection Solutions is developing an investigative survey to identify potential sources of the contamination prior to continuing maintenance, the board report said.
“No workers came in contact with the contamination, and the system will remain in its planned outage while the contractor confirms the source of the contamination and takes actions to resolve the issue and prevent recurrence,” a DOE spokesperson said Thursday.
A small area of dried, treated waste appeared to have leaked from a pipe fitting connection to a pressure-indicating transmitter at TSCR, the DOE spokesperson said.
The DOE has previously said an extended outage should run into early 2023 , following two initial TSCR runs that treated 380,000 gallons of low-level radioactive tank waste that will eventually be solidified into glass at the Waste Treatment Plant being built and commissioned by Bechtel.
“We look forward to resuming TSCR operations when the team, equipment, processes and procedures are ready,” the DOE spokesperson said Thursday.
The second batch run was completed July 20. The DOE has said it could take five batch runs with TSCR to prepare one million gallons of tank waste for vitrification once the Direct Feed Low Activity Waste facility starts operating at the Waste Treatment Plant, targeted for operation by December 2023. A federal judge has, however, approved letting the startup slip to May 2025 because of pandemic-related delays.
