A panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will make a second visit to the Hanford Site area this week for a public meeting on supplemental treatment of low-activity radioactive waste. It will meet from 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday and 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Red Lion Hotel, 802 George Washington Way in Richland, Wash.
The Waste Treatment Plant being built at Hanford was never planned to be large enough to vitrify all of the low-activity radioactive waste held in the site’s underground storage tanks in a reasonable time frame, and a supplemental treatment plan will be needed. About 90 percent of the 56 million gallons of Hanford tank waste is expected to be low-activity waste.
The first afternoon of meetings will include an overview of a visit by part of the panel to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and a presentation on the first draft report of the committee, which was released in early June. The report said vitrification, grouting, or steam reforming appear to be the primary technologies that are sufficiently developed or have sufficient likelihood of success to warrant detailed analysis.
A team from Department of Energy national laboratories will start its presentations on possible approaches to pretreatment and treatment of the waste and disposal considerations on Monday afternoon and continue for most of the day Tuesday. At 4 p.m. Tuesday the Yakama Nation and other stakeholder presentations, plus time for public comments, are scheduled. Public comments also will be heard at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The panel plans to issue three more reports. The study of supplemental treatment was ordered by Congress.