Feds move closer to testing a cheaper way to treat Hanford radioactive waste

The Department of Energy is taking an initial step that could result in more of Hanford’s radioactive tank waste being turned into a concrete-like grout and shipped out of Washington state for disposal.

Supporters of the technology say full-scale use of grouting to treat waste could save billions of taxpayer dollars and speed the emptying of waste from leak-prone underground tanks.

It could reduce risk to workers, the public and the environment, according to DOE.

“We are very encouraged that DOE is moving ahead,” said Gary Petersen, president of Northwest Energy Associates, a Tri-Cities nonprofit advocating for safer, faster and less costly methods of cleaning in the Hanford site.

Nearly four years ago DOE tried the process on three gallons of the 56 million gallons held in the nuclear reservation’s underground tanks and waiting to be treated for disposal.

On Friday it notified the Washington state Department of Ecology, a Hanford regulator, that it planned to prepare an environmental assessment on the next phase of the Test Bed Initiative, a pilot project to test the process on Hanford site waste. Area tribes and the state of Oregon were also among those notified.

DOE plans to have its draft assessment of grouting 2,000 gallons of waste complete in July, providing additional information as DOE decides whether to proceed with the project.

“DOE is committed to working collaboratively with states, tribal nations and local communities to consider technologies that hold the potential to get waste out of tanks, treated and disposed of,” Hanford workers were told in a message Friday announcing plans for the environmental assessment.

The tank waste is left from chemically processing irradiated uranium fuel at Hanford site reactors during World War II and the Cold War to produce two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

The test of treating some waste through grouting for disposal out-of-state does not change long-term plans to begin treating some of the least radioactive tank waste at the $17 billion vitrification plant by the end of 2023.

The vitrification plant is planned to turn much of the low activity radioactive waste from the tanks into a stable glass form for disposal in a lined landfill at Hanford.

But the vitrification plant was never planned to be large enough to treat all the low activity waste held in underground tanks, with low activity waste accounting for about 90% of the tanks’ contents.

The remainder is high-level radioactive waste that eventually will be vitrified and is required to be disposed of in a deep geological repository, such as the one that was planned at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

Washington state permit needed

As DOE works toward the start of operations of the vitrification plant, it also is working with the state of Washington to consider additional technologies like the proposed grouting.

The Test Bed Initiative, also called the Low-Level Waste Offsite Disposal Project, would be used only for low activity radioactive waste.

Washington state has not approved disposal of grouted waste at Hanford. But the grouted waste could be sent to a Waste Control Specialists disposal cell in Texas that was built for low-level radioactive waste from federal government sites.

The initial three gallons of waste treated in the Test Bed Initiative was shipped off Hanford to nearby Perma-Fix Northwest for treatment and then sent to the Texas disposal cell.

A Government Accountability Office report released in May 2017 said that Waste Control Specialists, which would profit from the waste grouting initiative, has said that grouting waste at Hanford could cost up to $16.5 billion less than expanding the vitrification plant to treat all of the tank waste.

Grouting could be done at a fifth the cost of vitrification, Petersen said.

The project also has the support of the Tri-City Development Council and Hanford Communities, a coalition of local governments near Hanford.

“We continue to be concerned about the long-term costs of tank waste treatment,” said David Reeploeg, who represents both organizations.

“So moving forward with Phase 2 and exploring opportunities to potentially treat low activity waste sooner, cheaper and having it stored permanently outside the state of Washington is an important step forward,” he said.

DOE applied to the state of Washington for a permit for demonstrating grouting and out-of-state disposal of 2,000 gallons of waste in 2019, and Congress budgeted $10 million for it in fiscal 2020.

However, DOE withdrew the permit application as DOE and the state held ongoing, in depth discussions on plans to treat all 56 million gallons of tank waste.

A Washington state Department of Ecology permit would still be needed if DOE moves forward with Phase 2 of the Test Bed Initiative after completing the environmental assessment.

“Tank waste treatment is a high priority for the state, and Ecology is pleased that DOE is providing the public with the opportunity to comment on the draft EA (environmental assessment),” said David Bowen, nuclear waste program manager for the Department of Ecology.

He anticipates there will be a public meeting to discuss the environmental assessment and that his agency will be present to answer questions, he said.