The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site should again consider reclassifying high-level radioactive wastes into something that existing technology can legally treat, a recent Government Accountability Office report recommended.
The recommendation was part of a Sept. 26 report by Congress’ investigative arm, titled “Hanford Cleanup: Alternatives for Treating and Disposing of High-Level Waste Could Save Billions of Dollars and Reduce Certain Risks.”
The rationale is that the United States could save big bucks by not building a facility to solidify at least 3 million gallons of high-level radioactive wastes stored in many of central Hanford’s 177 leak-prone underground tanks.
DOE has changed its interpretation of federal waste classification standards in recent years, in a move critics say could open the door for reclassification of Hanford’s high-level waste. However, the Washington Department of Ecology opposes reclassification, saying that radioactive wastes should not be arbitrarily reclassified to make Hanford’s cleanup more convenient.
It will take until about 2070 and cost $213 billion, accounting for inflation, to solidify all 56 million gallons of Hanford’s liquid radioactive waste, according to DOE’s most recent triennial River Protection System Plan, published in December. The waste is leftover from decades of plutonium production for U.S. nuclear weapons.
Some of Hanford’s less radioactive liquid tank waste, 40% or 50% or so, is supposed to be solidified in the Bechtel National-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant during a phase set to begin in August 2025 and called direct-feed low-activity waste. Hanford has already prepared hundreds of thousands of gallons of feedstock for that process.
High-level liquid waste, meanwhile, would need a separate treatment plant. Construction of such a facility stalled in 2012 due to technical challenges. In 2022, DOE resumed construction and has since spent over $200 million on the plant, according to September’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
Liquid waste that cannot be turned into glass-like logs using the treatment plant could be immobilized in concrete-like grout and shipped out of state. Washington State has been willing to at least entertain the option.
In April, DOE and the state ecology department reached a tentative agreement that included grouting wastes from 22 of Hanford’s underground tanks. However, the tentative agreement called for DOE to not reclassify its high-level wastes.
Last week’s GAO report includes DOE’s response saying that the tentative agreement forbids the feds from reclassifying high-level wastes.
“Ecology is reviewing the recent Government Accountability Office report pertaining to high-level waste at Hanford. We will share comments in the future once we’ve had time to analyze the report,” said state ecology department spokesman Ryan Miller in an email.
