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Hanford’s pre-treated nuclear waste might not meet vital plant criteria

Hanford’s underground tanks contain some 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.

Exchange Monitor, By Wayne Barber,

A storage tank spoiled a batch of liquid radioactive waste at the Hanford Site that
was thought to be clean enough for disposal, according to a contractor memo
seen by the Exchange Monitor.

The waste from Hanford’s tank farm, part of
a less-radioactive tranche that is supposed to be solidified starting in
2025 by the Bechtel National-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization
Plant, had been scrubbed by the Tank Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) outside the
plant and piped into a nearby tank, designated AP-106, for storage.

But recent sampling of TSCR-treated waste stored in AP-106 revealed higher
levels of radioactive contamination than is allowed in the Waste Treatment
and Immobilization Plant during its Direct Feed Low Activity Waste phase,
according to an Oct. 3 memo from the site’s liquid-waste prime
contractor, the Amentum-led Washington River Protection Solutions.

Hanford’s underground tanks contain some 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons. Production began during the Manhattan Project and ran through much of the Cold War.

The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant as constructed can only solidify a portion of Hanford’s less-radioactive waste, called low-activity waste. DOE has yet to approve a means of solidifying high-level waste or settle on a means of solidifying the low-activity waste that cannot be treated in the existing plant. One option for the later tranche of waste is mixing it with concrete-like grout.

 Exchange Monitor 19th Oct 2023

https://www.exchangemonitor.com/hanfords-pre-treated-waste-might-not-meet-vit-plant-criteria/ #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes #radiation

October 28, 2023 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes