Department of Energy contractors at the Hanford Site in Washington state are making headway on remaining problems before crews can start turning some less-radioactive tank waste at the property into a solid glass form, the Hanford Advisory Board heard Tuesday.
After making a batch of non-radioactive test glass in December, DOE wants to start vitrification of direct-feed-low-activity-waste at the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant in the first half of 2025. Among the remaining hurdles: re-treating some waste outside the plant to remove more cesium ahead of vitrification and starting up a second melter, said Brian Vance, DOE’s manager for Hanford.
“I believe we are on track to start Melter 2 heat up this month,” Vance said. The second melter was delayed due to “leakage” issues at the first melter, which have now been fixed, Vance said.
Meanwhile, DOE will retreat some waste in the Tank-Side-Cesium Removal (TSCR) project this spring to remove small amounts of remaining cesium that has lingered in the feeding tank for the vitrification plant. This clearing out of the AP-106 feed tank should occur in the March-April timeframe, Vance said.
After that, all the waste pre-treated through TSCR will meet the standards necessary for vitrification, he added.
After an early round of TSCR -pretreated waste was circulated inside AP-106, it dislodged some residual cesium stuck on tank walls from past years, making cesium levels in the treated waste too high for the vitrification plant, a Washington River Protection Solutions executive said in October. AP-106 was a waste storage tank before getting pressed into duty as a feeder for the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant.
DOE and contractor officials have said that TSCR itself is working as planned and that the excess cesium, which came from the walls of the AP-106, can be flushed out of the low-activity waste loop.
On other issues, DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Washington state “are this close” to having updated proposed waste cleanup milestones from the conceptual agreement from the so-called holistic talks ended in spring of 2023, said David Bowen. Bowen leaves his current post Feb. 15 as head of the state’s nuclear waste program at Hanford in order to take over a Washington state Department of Ecology regional office.
Within a couple of months afterward, the state will be taking public comment on a special permit for the Test-Bed Initiative, where 2,000 gallons of tank waste will be sent to commercial disposal sites to be grouted into a solid form, Bowen said.
Separately, Vance said by fiscal 2025 DOE plans to consolidate its Richland Operations Office and its Office of River Protection into a single office for the Hanford Site.
The two-day session of the Hanford Advisory Board marks the 30th anniversary of the panel that provides DOE with outside advice on cleanup of the former plutonium production facility.
