Letter: Hanford should grout radioactive waste

The June 17 TCH article, “World’s largest radioactive waste melter at Hanford,” indicated that the Low Activity Waste [LAW] Facility’s melters at Hanford have 10 times the capacity of a melter that is vitrifying radioactive waste at DOE’s Savannah River, S.C., site (SR). The SR site melter only treats high-level waste. LAW at SR is grouted. If Hanford grouted its LAW the following benefits would occur:

1. They would already be processing waste. Without these two large LAW melters SR has processed 4 million gallons of waste or about 16K tons of waste.

2. SR estimated that the LAW grout method will save $55 billion over vitrification. Hanford has more waste than SR; therefore, more savings.

3. No need to increase the BPA power grid. Vitirification requires heating material to 2,100 degrees. This will require a huge amount of electricity; hence, the French wants to build a 100-plus acre solar panel field near the DOE facility. Who will pay for this expensive power or will the melters operate during the day?

4. No significant impact on the local roads. It will require many trucks to bring in the glass-forming material to feed these two large LAW melters.

This story was originally published July 31, 2017 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Letter: Hanford should grout radioactive waste."