By Adrian Monty
Cleanup at the Hanford site in eastern Washington state continues to be messy. Construction of the Hanford Waste Treatment, or Vitrification Plant (to solidify liquid radioactive waste in “glass logs”), has been in the works since 2002. The arduous process of vitrifying the 56 million gallons of radioactive waste at Hanford, produced throughout WWII and the Cold War, inches closer to being started.
A 3,500-foot pipeline running from the high-level waste tanks to the vitrification site was recently completed, the Tri-City Herald reported June 11.
Although missed deadlines for the work to commence have been decried by federal and state officials, contractors and workers at Hanford want to ensure that the dangerously complex can be done safely before proceeding. Crews have performed tests designed to mimic radioactive leakage to determine if their systems are capable of leak detection.
While the Biden administration was pushing to expand the budget for clean-up efforts at Hanford, the current administration is calling for cutbacks. Due to initiatives to cut federal spending by the Department of Government Efficiency and other executive orders, 50 of the 300 federal workers at Hanford have been dismissed, according to Nuclear Engineering International, March 4th. Much of the high-risk work at the facility is done by specialized contractors like Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, and the Department of Energy (DOE) wants Hanford to reduce the number of contractors.
In addition to the waste being vitrified on-site at Hanford, the DOE has begun testing treatment and transportation of some of the radioactive waste to the Waste Control Specialists site in Andrews County, Texas and Energy Solutions in Clive, Utah and grouting it in cement as part of the “Test Bed Initiative.”
⸺ Adrian Monty works with the Oregon State University Downwinder Project. She is an environmental journalist with a focus on atomic issues.
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