The Energy Department has awarded a 10-month, $4.8 million task order to Tennessee-based Aerostar Perma-Fix TRU Services for the second phase of the Test Bed Initiative (TBI) on disposal of radioactive waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management announced the cost-plus-fixed-fee task order under an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract that involves off-site treatment and disposal of Hanford low-activity waste (LAW). The task order includes completing the design for the in-tank pre-treatment system (ITPS); fabricating, testing, and installing the system; treating about 2,000 gallons of low-activity waste; and preparing a final report on the Test Bed Initiative.
The TBI is being pursued as a treatment alternative for the approximately 90 percent of Hanford’s 56 million gallons of tank waste that is believed to be low activity. The Waste Treatment Plant that Bechtel is building at the former plutonium production complex was never planned to be large enough to treat all of the low-activity waste at Hanford.
The task order would cover Phase 2 of the TBI. Phase 1, finished in December 2017, involved extraction of 3 gallons of waste from underground tanks at Hanford, moving it by truck to the nearby Perma-Fix Northwest plant for chemical stabilization and immobilization, and then to the Waste Control Specialists low-level waste disposal facility in Texas.
Plans for the 2,000 gallons of waste will be more complicated because of the need to prepare a low-activity waste stream of that size from liquid tank waste. Hanford double-shell Tank SY-101 has been picked for the project because of its location away from ongoing tank farm operations, the fact that it contains ample liquid waste, and the need to clear more space in the tank. The tank receives waste from Hanford’s 222-S Laboratory, which is used to test tank waste samples.
A pretreatment system with an ion exchange system will be inserted in one of the tank’s 12-inch risers to remove cesium, which must be treated as a high-level waste. The in-tank system also will use a filter to remove solids that include high-level waste. The pretreated waste stream will be checked to ensure it meets low-level waste requirements and then shipped for grouting. Grouting may be done at the Perma-Fix Northwest plant in the city of Richland if the Washington state Department of Ecology agrees the facility has the necessary permit. Perma-Fix could ship it elsewhere in the nation if it cannot work out permitting requirements at the local site.
Ecology, the regulator for Hanford tank waste, says it is happy to discuss the project, so long as it does not conflict with or otherwise inhibit plans to begin vitrifying low-activity waste at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. It is waiting for a DOE report to Congress with details about the Test Bed Initiative that was due in November 2018, but is expected to be released soon, according to Ecology. “Until we’ve seen that report, we will not be ready to discuss the details of any necessary permits to allow TBI,” Ecology said in a statement. The Energy Department said earlier in January it is in talks with Ecology over a permitting approach for the project.
Aerostar Perma-Fix is a joint venture, with Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Aerostar managing the task order and Atlanta-based Perma-Fix responsible for the treatment. Columbia Energy and Environmental Services in Richland is expected to design, fabricate, and install equipment for the project. “It is a team effort between DOE and local small businesses to find a solution to some tank waste treatment,” said Richard Grondin, general manager of Perma-Fix Northwest.
The Test Bed Initiative also calls for a third phase in the future, which would treat upward of 100,000 gallons of waste. Plans for the third phase have not been announced, but DOE has said the second phase could be completed this fiscal year.
Supporters of the project see it as a way to get some tank waste treated sooner or in addition to glassification of low-activity waste at the Waste Treatment Plant. The plant has a federal-court enforced milestone to start treating low-activity waste by 2023.
A DOE fact sheet says a preliminary analysis shows that much of the Hanford-treated tank low-level waste would meet the waste acceptance criteria for disposal at the Waste Control Specialists facility.
The Energy Department has said the initiative could produce significant cost savings. A Government Accountability Office report released in May 2017 relied on information from Waste Control Specialists to say grouting some tank waste rather than expanding the vitrification plant to treat all of Hanford’s low-activity waste could save up to $16.5 billion.
The initiative also would free up space in Hanford’s 27 double-shell tanks as they are nearing capacity. Waste from Hanford’s 149 leak-prone single-shell tanks is being transferred to the double-shell tanks until it can be treated for disposal. The plan also overcomes the difficulty of disposing of grouted waste at Hanford, as Ecology has called for waste to be vitrified if it is disposed of in the ground at Hanford.
