Earlier this month a Department of Energy contractor started removing radioactive waste from an underground tank at the AX Farm at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
Removal of radioactive and chemical waste from Tank AX-101 started Jan. 13, and should take about 18 months, the Department of Energy said in a Tuesday news release.
That translates to a roughly July-August 2024 completion date for contractor Washington River Protection Solutions to extract 426,000 gallons of waste from the fourth and final single-shell tank in the AX Tank Farm to be emptied.
The DOE had hoped to start the retrieval in November, according to a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board report from last fall.
Once completed AX-101 retrieval would mark the 21st single-shell tank to be emptied of its waste at the Hanford Site, according to DOE. Certification of waste retrieval is currently ongoing for the 19th and 20th such tanks, according to the agency.
There are 149 single-shell tanks and 28 double-shell tanks at the Hanford Site. Tanks B-109 and T-111 are “known leakers,” a DOE spokesperson said in a Tuesday email. In August 2022, DOE and the Washington state Department of Ecology announced a deal on how to handle leaking tanks.
“Seeing retrieval begin on another single-shell tank is always good news,” said Ryan Miller, spokesman with the state Department of Ecology in a Thursday email. “One of our agency’s biggest priorities is getting waste out of single-shell tanks, moved to safer double-shell tanks, and eventually treated and disposed of permanently in a way that’s protective of human health and the environment.”
The waste from single-shell tanks will be transferred to a newer double-shell tank to reduce the chance of waste leaking prior to it eventually being converted into a glass form at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The plant’s Direct-Feed-Low Activity Waste facilities have been constructed and are undergoing testing. Under a revised federal court order, DOE has until mid-2025 to start making glass, although it hopes to do so sooner.
Tank AX-101 holds mostly solid waste called saltcake, along with some liquid and sludge-like material, DOE said in the announcement.
