Hanford Subcontract Awarded for New Tank Waste Pretreatment Capability

The Tank-Side Cesium Removal system conceptual drawing.

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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