The Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has for the first time shipped tank waste off-site for treatment and disposal. Three gallons of low-activity radioactive waste were sent in October to a nearby Perma-Fix Environmental Services facility to be grouted. It is then expected to be sent for disposal at the Waste Control Specialists Federal Waste Facility in Andrews County, Texas.
In a report issued in September, the Energy Communities Alliance urged the Department of Energy to proceed with the Hanford Test Bed Initiative (TBI), a three-phase effort to demonstrate the feasibility of treating and disposing of waste off-site as a possible alternative for disposing of some Hanford low-activity tank waste.
The Waste Treatment Plant, being built at Hanford to treat up to 56 million gallons of waste, was not designed to process all of the former plutonium production complex’s low-activity tank waste in a reasonable time. Grouting waste that would be sent off-site for disposal also is a possibility for some secondary waste from the Waste Treatment Plant.
As outlined by the Energy Communities Alliance, the first phase of the Test Bed Initiative would involve treating 3 gallons of waste and expanding to 100,000 gallons or more in phase three. “Continued progress on the TBI is important to lay the foundation for future DOE decisions regarding the potential for treating, stabilizing and disposing of Hanford LAW (low-activity waste) in a form other than glass,” the ECA report said. “If the test proves successful, the concept could allow tank closures at Hanford to be dramatically accelerated, reducing cleanup costs by billions of dollars and resulting in decades of schedule improvement.”
Washington River Protection Solutions workers were told in an employee newsletter that “this study does not impact or imply a change to DOE’s initial planned treatment option to vitrify low-activity waste.”
The Energy Department plans to start converting low-activity waste into a glass form at the Waste Treatment Plant in 2022, ahead of a 2023 milestone set by federal court order. In a statement, DOE said it “is continuously looking for ways to perform its cleanup mission while being protective of its workforce, the public and the environment, while serving as good steward of taxpayer resources.” The focus remains on starting to treat low-activity waste at the Waste Treatment Plant, according to the statement. The vitrified low-activity waste would be disposed of at Hanford’s Integrated Disposal Facility, a landfill built for the waste and not approved for grouted low-activity waste.
The Washington state Department of Ecology was involved in the planning for the treatment and shipment of the 3 gallons of tank waste, including working with Texas to ensure the states’ respective regulations for the waste are in agreement, said Randy Bradbury, Ecology spokesman.
“However, we still expect all Hanford tank waste to be turned into glass at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant,” he said. If the next phase of testing proceeds, the state agency would want more information from Perma-Fix before more waste is shipped. It could require a change to Perma-Fix’s state permit and the process would include public input, Bradbury said.
The Government Accountability Office in a May report addressed the possibility of grouting some of Hanford’s low-activity waste, saying it could be less expensive than vitrification and allow some waste to be treated earlier. About 90 percent of Hanford’s tank waste is expected to be low-activity waste and the rest high-level waste. Discussions for additional treatment for all of the low-activity waste have included building a second low-activity waste facility, which might not be needed if grouting were done instead.
Experts, at a meeting convened for the GAO by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, said both vitrification and grouting could effectively treat Hanford’s low-activity waste. The GAO report said that since vitrification was picked over grouting more than 20 years ago as the best treatment method, grouting technologies have improved.
