The acting head of the Department of Energy’s $7.8-billion nuclear cleanup program says flexibility is key to solving tough-to-eradicate problems such as radioactive liquid waste disposal and groundwater contamination at Cold War and Manhattan Project sites.
“At this point in time we are about 80 years removed from the Manhattan Project,” William (Ike) White told a hybrid meeting of the DOE’s Environmental Management Advisory Board in New Orleans. Final remediation of a couple of nuclear properties, such as the Hanford Site in Washington state might last nearly as long, White said.
As a result, the Office of Environmental Management is thinking long-term on two of its most stubborn obstacles, radioactive waste disposal and soil and groundwater remediation.
The Office of Environmental Management is looking to increase its research and development on radioactive waste cleanup and disposal issues, White said. The Environmental Management senior adviser alluded to National Academies of Sciences and Savannah River National Laboratory research on treatment options for supplemental low-level radioactive waste that exceeds the capacity for the Waste Immobilization and Treatment Plant being built by Bechtel.
Likewise, DOE has asked its national laboratories to help draft a national framework for tackling groundwater contamination at nuclear sites, White said.
White did not cite any numbers. The administration of President Joe Biden proposed an Environmental Management research and development line item of $25 million, down from $35 million appropriated for the prior two fiscal years.
Improved insight into waste and groundwater should help nuclear cleanup managers of the future remain flexible and adapt to changing budgets and technology, White said.
White also gave a rundown of major infrastructure projects that are close to starting cleanup work after decades of design and development.
Warmup of melters is getting underway at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, White said. Likewise, warmup is imminent for the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU) at the Idaho National Laboratory.
The Waste Treatment Plant is meant to convert much of the 56 million gallons of radioactive tank waste at Hanford into a stable glass form. The DOE could start its Direct-Feed-Low-Activity-Waste work as early as December 2023 or early 2024, the advisory panel was told Thursday.
Likewise, the Integrated Tank Waste Treatment Unit at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory, first constructed in 2012, could start converting 900,000 gallons of liquid sodium-bearing radioactive waste into a more stable granular form next month.
Despite the “inevitable challenges” of commissioning such facilities, White said, as an engineer it is great “to see these things come together” that mark the culmination of decades of work.
