Hanford Subcontract Awarded for New Tank Waste Pretreatment Capability
The Tank-Side Cesium Removal system conceptual drawing.
RICHLAND, Wash. – EM Office of River Protection
(ORP) contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) has
awarded a subcontract to design and build a new tank waste pretreatment
capability at the Hanford Site.
The Tank-Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) demonstration project, awarded to
AVANTech, Inc. of Columbia, South Carolina will separate both cesium and
solid materials from tank waste, providing a low-level radioactive
waste (LLW) stream that will be sent to the Waste Treatment and
Immobilization Plant’s Low Activity Waste (LAW) Facility for
vitrification. The system supports EM’s plans to begin treating tank
waste through its Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) vitrification
approach.
The TSCR project relies on a technology successfully deployed at
several locations worldwide, including EM’s Oak Ridge Site and the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station nuclear cleanup in Japan. It
also uses a design concept similar to that of a unit built for the
Savannah River Site.
TSCR will filter waste from a Hanford double-shell tank to remove
solids and then process the waste through a series of ion-exchange
columns that will remove cesium. The resulting LLW solution will be
pumped to a different double-shell tank for storage until it can be sent
to the LAW Facility.
The project is expected to pretreat approximately 5 million gallons of
waste to support the initial operation of the LAW Facility. The
ion-exchange columns will be replaced periodically, and the used columns
will be safely stored at a nearby interim storage facility.
“This efficient and cost-effective technology is a key step toward
enabling ORP to begin pretreating Hanford’s tank waste as soon as
possible,” said Glyn Trenchard, ORP assistant manager for tank farms.
The DFLAW approach is expected to allow treatment of LLW to begin by the court-ordered milestone date of 2023.
-Contributor: Jerry Holloway
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