The Energy Department withdrew its state permit application for the Hanford Site Test Bed Initiative last week after the Washington state Department of Ecology sought federal-state negotiations over tank waste remediation.
In a May 29 letter, Ecology Director Maia Bellon told Anne Marie White, the departing DOE assistant secretary for environmental management, it is time for the state and federal agencies to have a “frank discussion” about radioactive tank waste at Hanford. White is resigning from the department effective today.
Washington is concerned about slow progress on remediation at the former plutonium production complex and also doubts DOE can meet certain milestones on tank closures and full-scale operation of the Waste Treatment Plant that Bechtel is building at Hanford.
Decades of chemically reprocessing irradiated fuel to remove plutonium for nuclear weapons left Hanford with 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks. Roughly 90% of that material is estimated to be low-activity waste.
The Test Bed Initiative would provide an alternate means for treating some of Hanford’s low-activity waste by turning it into a grout-like substance rather than sending it through the Waste Treatment Plant for vitrification. In January, DOE submitted its initial application to add new activities to its existing operations permit for Hanford’s double-shell waste tanks.
On June 5, the Energy Department verbally informed the Ecology Department, followed by a letter the next day, that it was withdrawing its application pending six-to-nine months of talks toward a “holistic and realistic” approach to managing Hanford tank waste. The letter was signed by Ben Harp, deputy manager for DOE’s Office of River Protection at Hanford.
The state canceled the 45-day comment period scheduled to start June 7 on the next phase of the Test Bed Initiative.
Under a $4.8 million Energy Department contract issued earlier this year, the Aerostar Perma-Fix TRU Services joint venture was retained for the second phase of the project. The second phase includes extracting up to 2,000 gallons of waste from Hanford tanks and converting the material into a solid form at the nearby Perma-Fix Northwest plant. Once in a solid form, the material could be shipped to the Waste Control Specialists low-level waste disposal facility in Texas.
The first phase, finished in December 2017 by Perma-Fix Northwest, featured 3 gallons of Hanford tank waste. The 3 gallons were handled as a treatability study rather than a permit, said Department of Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said Thursday.The Energy Department in March applied for a state research, development, and demonstration permit for the 2,000-gallon test phase.
Eventually, the Energy Department envisions a third phase test that would encompass 100,000 gallons of tank waste.
Perma-Fix could conceivably ship the waste to Tennessee for grouting, before sending it on to Texas.
Perma-Fix could not immediately be reached for comment. Hanford tank farm manager Washington River Protection Solutions deferred comment to the Energy Department, which declined to comment further on the permit withdrawal. But a source said DOE’s Brian Vance, who serves as manager for both the Richland Operations Office and the Office of River Protection, said in a public meeting the agency does intend to refile the application.
