Nov 14, 2024 · When complete, the plant will process and stabilize much of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste currently stored in underground tanks at the Hanford Site. The plant will use vitrification technology, which involves mixing the waste with glass-forming materials and heating it to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit inside large melters.

To accomplish this task, DOE has spent more than 20 years constructing a set of facilities—known as the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, or WTP—so that the waste can be taken out of the tanks and vitrified, a process in which the waste is immobilized in glass.

Sep 28, 2023 · DOE currently plans to use the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at Hanford to vitrify all of the site's tank waste. Vitrification is a treatment process that will immobilize the waste in glass.

To ensure safe and efficient operation, the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) undergoes a rigorous commissioning process. This involves meticulous testing, starting with non-radioactive materials, to progressively verify that all …

Nov 28, 2023 · In 2013, DOE updated its decision to separate tank wastes with low levels of long-lived radionuclides (referred to as low-activity waste or LAW) from other tank waste, and to vitrify some of the LAW at Hanford's Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP).

In addition, DOE has developed a Research and Development Roadmap to guide investments in additional technology options to accelerate the Hanford high-level tank waste mission. EM will ramp up engineering, design and construction on the WTP High-Level Waste Facility to maintain progress towards treating the remaining Hanford tank waste.

The purpose of the HLW Facility is to process high-level liquid radioactive waste into a stable glass form and package it for final disposal. The HLW Facility is one of three major processing facilities (including the Pretreatment Facility and the Low-Activity Waste Facility) within the WTP.

The WTP is to consist of a pretreatment facility that separates waste into high-level and low-activity radioactivity waste streams; two facilities to treat these separated streams using a process called vitrification, where

Dec 4, 2023 · Hanford workers prepare to treat waste from aging tanks. The Hanford site vitrification plant has filled a first container with test glass in a step toward glassifying radioactive waste to allow...

Waste Remediation mission. This started with PNNL leadership in developing the chemical and engineering processes that generated the Hanford and Savannah River tank wastes and moved to development of the waste treatment processing at Hanford, Savan.