As the Department of Energy evaluates options for preparing a portion of Hanford’s tank waste believed to be transuranic material for disposal, Perma-Fix Environmental Services met with Washington state Governor Jay Inslee (D) and members of the state legislature last week to discuss the company’s proposed method. “We were asked to meet with a bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives including the director of the Department of Ecology,” Perma-Fix Chief Operating Officer Jim Blakenhorn said in a written response to WC Monitor. “Our discussions included our Perma-Fix Northwest (PFNW) facility and its capability and capacity to treat waste in storage at the Hanford Site and our proposal to process waste from leaking and potentially leaking tanks. Our main interest was to continue to provide support to the Governor’s demands that something needs to be done, and we were pleased to discuss our Hanford Tank Waste accelerated retrieval and processing proposal and the expanded use of our PFNW facility.”
DOE is looking to process and ship approximately 3.1 million gallons of waste believed to be transuranic waste in up to 20 tanks to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Perma-Fix has proposed to DOE and Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions that a significant portion of the Hanford transuranic tank waste be brought to its facility near the site for treatment to meet the waste acceptance criteria for WIPP—a move the company has said is expected to be cheaper than other proposals under consideration to treat the material on-site. Perma-Fix’s proposal would entail the waste being removed from tanks, transferred into WIPP-compliant containers and then shipped to the Perma-Fix Northwest facility near Hanford. Once there, the waste would be mixed with solidification materials to eliminate free liquids and make the material suitable for disposal at WIPP. After the material is treated, it would be sent back to Hanford for storage until the DOE Central Characterization Project returns to the site to certify the material can be sent to WIPP.
NEW: Via public records request, I’ve been able to confirm reporting today that a warrant has been issued for DOE deputy asst. secretary of spent fuel and waste disposition Sam Brinton for another luggage theft, this time at Las Vegas’s Harry Reid airport. (cc: @EMPublications)
DOE spent fuel lead Brinton accused of second luggage theft.
by @BenjaminSWeiss, confirming today's reports with warrant from Las Vegas Metro PD.
Waste has been Emplaced! 🚮
We have finally begun emplacing defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of #WIPP.
Read more about the waste emplacement here: https://wipp.energy.gov/wipp_news_20221123-2.asp
Editorial: Sam Brinton’s credibility is now an issue 🔓