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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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DNFSB spots possible bottleneck in Hanford’s waste vitrification
Workers change out spent 27,000-pound TSCR filter columns and place them on a nearby storage pad during a planned outage in 2023. (Photo: DOE)
While the Department of Energy recently celebrated the beginning of hot commissioning of the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), which has begun immobilizing the site’s radioactive tank waste in glass through vitrification, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has reported a possible bottleneck in waste processing. According to the DNFSB, unless current systems run efficiently, the issue could result in the interruption of operations at the WTP’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, where waste vitrification takes place.
During operations, the LAW Facility will process an average of 5,300 gallons of tank waste per day, according to Bechtel, the contractor leading design, construction, and commissioning of the WTP. That waste is piped to the facility after being treated by Hanford’s Tanks Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system, which filters undissolved solid material and removes cesium from liquid waste.
According to a November 7 activity report by the DNFSB, the TSCR system may not be able to produce waste feed fast enough to keep up with the LAW Facility’s vitrification rate.
Educational Session|Panel|Sponsored by Regulatory Relations|Cosponsored by Risk Management
Tuesday, August 11, 2020|2:00–3:30PM EDT
Session Organizer:
Ken Lowery (Southern Nuclear)
Knowledge Manager:
Maxwell Daniels (IAEA)
The scope of these activities includes both agency-wide efforts intended to address cross-cutting aspects of culture, innovation, technology, and staff development, as well as elements driven at the office-level focused on reactor licensing, oversight, and rulemaking. Though they vary in objective, the common themes that motivate the transformation activities are: (1) gaining efficiencies in our processes such that more time can be devoted to matters of greatest importance to the agency’s mission, (2) enhancing agility to manage evolving workloads and responding adeptly to emerging technology trends in the nuclear energy sector, (3) developing a workforce that has the appropriate skills and tools to meet the mission needs, and (4) using new approaches to data analytics to inform our decision-making. Staff will provide an overview of the transformation, an update of the most recent activities, and identify ways in which the agency will engage with licensees and other stakeholders throughout the transformation process.
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