The Hanford TBI project is intended to demonstrate the feasibility of alternative options for the treatment and disposal of the low-activity portion of Hanford’s approximately 56,000 gallons of radioactive tank waste, generated from defense-related plutonium production.
“The Test Bed Initiative is a demonstration to evaluate a safe, effective, and efficient option for accelerating environmental cleanup of the Hanford Site,” said Hanford deputy manager Brian Harkins. “This successfully executed demonstration will provide valuable information for options to accelerate environmental cleanup at the Hanford Site.”
The waste: Retrieved from Tank SY-101, one of Hanford’s 28 underground double-shell waste tanks, the nearly 2,000 gallons of TBI waste was treated using an in-tank filtration system to remove 99.99 percent of the radioactive cesium and other radionuclides. The treated waste was then shipped in robust double-walled steel containers in compliance with U.S. Department of Transportation regulations.
Both EnergySolutions and WCS will each receive about 1,000 gallons of the waste for solidification and disposal.
Watch a YouTube video of the Hanford TBI project here.
Background: Planning for the 2,000-gallon TBI began in 2018, with the DOE issuing a waste incidental to reprocessing for the waste in 2023, allowing it to be managed as low-level radioactive waste.
Earlier, in 2017, the DOE completed an initial test using three gallons of Hanford tank waste, demonstrating that the waste could be successfully pretreated, transported to nearby Perma-Fix Environmental Services for stabilization, and disposed of as treated LLW in a solid waste form at the WCS facility.
While the DOE intends to stabilize most of Hanford’s tank waste in glass through vitrification, not all low-activity waste will be able to be capable of being vitrified, and the DOE is working with the state of Washington on alternative treatment options, including solidification in grout. Federal and state disposal regulations dictate how Hanford’s waste is managed.
