The National Academies of Science are putting together a panel of experts to look at the thoroughness and technical quality of a recent analysis done by the Department of Energy national laboratories on supplemental treatment options for low-activity tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
Nominations are due by May 21 via this link. About 14 volunteer experts are sought to be part of this National Academies-backed research into grouting and other technology called for in the National Defense Authorization Act of fiscal 2021. Questions can be emailed to Charles Ferguson at [email protected].
This new committee of experts will evidently pick up where a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine panel left off last year.
Over the course of about two years, the committee will generate three review reports on options for the low-activity waste (LAW), which cannot be turned into glass at the Waste Treatment Plant being built by Bechtel.
Low-activity waste accounts for about 90% of the 56 million gallons of tank waste left over from decades of plutonium production at Hanford. But the Waste Treatment Plant only has enough capacity to handle about half of the LAW.
The prior National Academies of Sciences panel, in a congressional-mandated follow-up to research by the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, last year said vitrification, grouting, and steam reforming are all technically feasible for the supplemental waste — although vitrification into glass is the most expensive of the three. The last National Academies committee, however, did not select a preferred choice. It called for more study into that issue using the Savannah River lab research as the starting point.
