In June, the Washington state Department of Ecology published its 85-page response to public comments about the Department of Energy’s plans to solidify 2,000 gallons of low-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in a concrete-like grout.
The state’s public response to the comments checks one of the last boxes prior to issuance of the one-year Demonstration Draft Research, Development, and Demonstration Permit. The permit could take effect July 18, according to Ecology’s comment page.
Ecology accepted comments on the test-bed initiative between March 11 and April 25.
The long-discussed permit, which builds on an earlier three-gallon test, authorizes the test-bed demonstration “in order to test the feasibility and efficacy of deploying an in-tank pretreatment system” to separate and pretreat about 2,000 gallons of the less-radioactive waste at Hanford.
The demonstration will filter and remove cesium and radionuclides from 2,000 gallons of liquid waste. This waste will be removed from Tank SY-101, a double-shell tank in a tank farm within Hanford’s 200 West Area.
The pretreated waste will be stored in six U.S. Department of Transportation shipping containers. The containers will then be shipped off-site for grouting and disposal at sites such as EnergySolutions in Clive, Utah and Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas.
In its responses, the state agency said at this stage it need not address pretreatment capability at the nearby Perma-Fix facility in Richland, Wash., or any potential onsite grouting at Hanford. That is because the pretreatment will take place at the Hanford Site, and grouting will take place away from Hanford.
Comments came from a few dozen citizens and a handful of organizations: Columbia Riverkeeper, Hanford Challenge, Hanford Communities; Heart of America Northwest and the Oregon Department of Energy.
By volume, low-level radioactive waste accounts for most of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous waste left over from decades of plutonium processing at Hanford. DOE has been exploring grout as an option for some of the low-level waste that cannot be made into glass at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant built by Bechtel.
The treatment plant is supposed to switch on in 2025, DOE has said.
