Eastern WA nuclear project that could save billions. Here’s what the test showed

RICHLAND – Some 2,000 gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste that had been stored in underground tanks has been shipped off the Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington for disposal after it is treated.

The work was the second phase of a demonstration project to show that at least some Hanford tank waste could be successfully grouted and disposed of offsite.

Routinely grouting rather than glassifying some of the least radioactive tank waste has the potential to save billions of dollars and speed up work to get 56 million gallons of radioactive waste out of underground tanks, some of them prone to leaking, according to several agencies.

The waste is left from production of nearly two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War. Until now, just three gallons of 56 million gallons of tank waste has been disposed of permanently.

The Department of Energy’s current top official at Hanford, acting Deputy Manager Brian Harkins, called the demonstration project a success.

“(It) will provide valuable information for options to accelerate environmental cleanup at the Hanford site,” he said.

Waste pretreatment successful

Not only did DOE demonstrate that shipping of low activity radioactive waste could be done from Hanford safely across multiple states, but that a new system inserted inside individual tanks could separate out some of the least radioactive waste that is potentially suitable for grouting, rather than more costly treatment by vitrification.

In the initial phase of the demonstration project, three gallons of low activity radioactive waste were separated out of waste at the Hanford 222-S Laboratory for grouting.

Hanford workers remove a shipping container filled with liquid, low activity radioactive waste from the SY Tank Farm at Hanford to be shipped out-of-state for treatment and disposal. Department of Energy

But a more efficient system was needed to separate 2,000 gallons.

Former Hanford tank waste contractor Washington River Protection Solutions successfully used a pretreatment system lowered through a narrow opening into an enclosed underground tank in October to separate the most radioactive constituents from a portion of the waste.

It used a filtration system to remove from the large, undissolved solids that are highly radioactive from the waste and an ion exchange column to remove radioactive cesium 137 and some strontium from the waste.

The result was 2,000 gallons of waste that were even less radioactive than anticipated, said Katie Wong, DOE program manager, in a videotaped explanation of the demonstration project.

It removed almost all of the radioactivity from the waste, she said.

Shipping liquid radioactive waste

The pretreated waste was then loaded into containers approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation for shipment, with half going to Texas and half going to Utah. Shipping was done by the new tank farm contractor, Hanford Tank Waste Operations and Closure, or H2C.

The containers, called “totes,” are made of double-walled stainless steel and can withstand a drop from 30 feet. They measure 4-feet high, wide and deep and can hold 330 gallons of liquid waste each.

A shipping container, called a tote, that is filled with liquid, low activity radioactive waste from a Hanford site underground tank is about to be loaded onto a truck to be sent to a Utah facility for treatment and disposal. Department of Energy

Touching the container would expose a person to less radiation than a dental X-ray, according to DOE.

At the out-of-state facilities, the waste will be turned into a concrete-like grout for permitted and regulated disposal there.

Disposing of grouted waste has long been a sticking point in allowing low-activity tank waste to be grouted.

DOE has already constructed a lined landfill in central Hanford, the Integrated Disposal Facility, for disposal of vitrified low activity radioactive waste.

Because of the groundwater that flows slowly beneath Hanford toward the Columbia River, the Department of Ecology, a Hanford site regulator, has said that only the most robust waste forms – such as vitrified waste but not grouted waste – are acceptable for disposal of low activity tank waste at Hanford.

Ecology supported the grouting demonstration project by issuing a permit for the waste management activities at Hanford before it was shipped out of state.

“We’re encouraged to hear that the U.S. Department Energy safely completed shipments of low-activity waste to licensed disposal sites in Utah and Texas,” said Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller. “This is another step forward by Energy in proving the feasibility of disposing low-activity waste in a grouted form at appropriate locations outside of Washington state.”

Both the EnergySolutions disposal facility in Utah and the Waste Control Specialists disposal facility in Texas are in areas where the geography is conducive to disposal that is more protective of the environment than at Hanford.

The Utah disposal facility is in the west desert of Utah approximately 75 miles west of Salt Lake City.

The initial three gallons of radioactive waste that were grouted in 2017 were sent for disposal to the Texas repository, which has salt formations devoid of water to keep grouted waste secure.

The three gallons were turned into a grout form at Perma-Fix Northwest, which is just off the Hanford site adjacent to Richland, before shipping to Texas in a solid form.

But the 2,000 gallons were shipped as a liquid, drawing objections from the Spokane mayor and others who do not want liquid waste routinely coming through their communities.

The route for the liquid waste took it from Hanford north to Spokane, across the Idaho panhandle to Montana and then through Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico to Texas or from Montana to southern Idaho and then Utah.

DOE said that in the last 20 years DOE has routinely and safely shipped liquid waste, including 1,000 gallons from New York to Texas, 4,700 gallons from Ohio to Texas and 1.5 million gallons from Colorado to Utah.

Grouting should cost less

The Government Accountability Office has been saying since 2017 that grouting would be a suitable and less expensive alternative for treating at least some of the least radioactive portion of the tank waste.

Waste Control Specialists, which would profit if Hanford tank waste were to be sent there, has estimated that sending grouted waste to Texas for disposal would cost up to $16.5 billion less than expanding the currently planned Hanford vitrification facilities to treat all of the least radioactive tank waste, according to the GAO.

This summer the Hanford vitrification plant, where construction started in 2002, is expected to begin turning some of the least radioactive tank waste into a stable glass form for disposal at Hanford.

But the plant was not planned to be large enough to treat all of the low activity radioactive waste at Hanford in a reasonable time. At least 90 percent of the 56 million gallons of waste are expected to be low activity waste.

The Energy Communities Alliance also has support the demonstration project, estimating as the first phase of the demonstration project started in 2017 that grouting could cut $40 billion from environmental cleanup costs at Hanford under a conservative estimate.

The National Academy of Sciences, which studied different waste forms that could be used for disposal of Hanford waste, found grouting was a technically strong alternative.

Grouting the waste could be done at the same time as some of the low activity waste is being vitrified, speeding up the disposition of the tank waste.

It also could get leak-prone tanks into safer storage sooner.

Waste from 149 leak-prone, single-shell tanks, some which have held waste since WWII, is being moved into 27 usable newer double shell tanks until it can be treated. By treating more of the waste sooner, more space will be freed up in the double shell tanks, allowing more of the waste in single-shell tanks to be transferred to them.

DOE and the Washington state Department of Ecology ended nearly four years of negotiations related to tank waste last year with a holistic agreement that included a plan to grout the low activity waste from 22 tanks farthest from the vitrification plant and sending the waste out-of-state for disposal.

With the 2,000 gallons from the second phase of the demonstration project now sent offsite, DOE will consider options for full scale use of grouting for some of the tank waste.

“Implementation of this technology on an industrial scale has the potential to safely treat low activity waste from Hanford tanks, solidify the waste in grout, and dispose of it offsite in a manner that would reduce risks to workers, the public and the environment consistent with industry standards,” Harkins said.

Among the options DOE could consider are building a new facility for grouting waste at Hanford, sending waste to nearby Perma-Fix for grouting or sending waste in a liquid form for grouting in Texas or Utah.

DOE has a deadline at the end of this year to make its decision on where the waste will be grouted.