Some 35 cubic yards of radioactive sludge are officially headed inland in coming years to the Hanford Site’s T Plant from the K-West Basin near the Columbia River, according to a document released Monday by the Department of Energy and Washington state.
The move is part of an Explanation of Significant Difference for the K Basins Interim Remedial Action Record of Decision. The agencies determined in May there would be no public comment period for the document. The explanation was signed June 3 by Stacy Charboneau, manager of the Richland Operations Office in charge of mostly solid-waste cleanup at Hanford, and on May 31 by Dennis Faulk, the Environmental Protection Agency’s program manager for DOE’s Hanford and Idaho National Laboratory sites.
The K Basin sludge is now stored in underwater containers in the K-West Basin about 400 yards from the Columbia River. DOE was supposed to start sludge cleanup there in 2014, but missed the deadline. The agency now looks to be cutting it close to begin construction of the temporary sludge storage site at T Plant by Sept. 30, 2017, the new start date the department settled on with Washington state last year.
As part of the same renegotiation that pushed out construction of the interim sludge storage facility, DOE agreed to start sludge removal to T Plant by Sept. 30, 2018, and finish by Dec. 31, 2019.
Specifically, according to the Explanation of Significant Difference, the following T Plant cells will become sludge storage sites: 3L, 8R, 9L, 10L, 13L, 14R, and 15L.
T Plant is a former chemical separations facility once used to separate plutonium intended for the Pentagon’s nuclear arsenal from irradiated fuel rods. The facility now is used mostly for waste treatment, including radio-contaminated and hazardous waste. Some of the transuranic waste Hanford generates, and which will eventually be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., is packaged at T Plant.
In 2014, DOE thought the K Basin sludge cleanup would cost about $310 million. A new cost estimate is underway and will be complete after an external review of the program slated for this year, according to the fiscal 2017 DOE budget request released in February.
K Basin sludge comes from irradiated fuel rods left over from Cold War-era plutonium production. The sludge will eventually be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant as transuranic waste.
