A federal advisory panel heard Tuesday the Department of Energy’s top manager at the Hanford Site in Washington state still expects to start making test glass in November from a simulant designed to mimic low-level radioactive tank waste.
DOE site manager Brian Vance told the Hanford Advisory Board cold commissioning of the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Facilities at the site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant is still on track for November.
The timeline keeps Hanford on track with what DOE dubbed a “modest” four-month delay agreed to in June between the federal agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology. Under modification to a consent decree, the prior deadline of Aug. 1 was extended until Nov. 29. DOE has said this latest delay should not affect hot commissioning, which is due to start by August 2025.
Hot commissioning is when the vitrification plant, built by Bechtel National, is expected to start solidifying some of Hanford’s less radioactive liquid tank waste into glass form.
DOE is also targeting 90% design completion for the high-level waste treatment portion of the plant in 2027, Vance said. There is only “limited construction” happening now on high-level facilities, he added.
There are roughly 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste stored in underground tanks at Hanford. The waste is the residue remaining from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.