Removing Phosphate from Hanford High-Phosphate Tank Wastes: FY 2010 Results

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for environmental remediation at the Hanford Site in Washington State, a former nuclear weapons production site. Retrieving, processing, immobilizing, and disposing of the 2.2 × 105 m3 of radioactive wastes stored in the Hanford underground storage tanks dominates the overall environmental remediation effort at Hanford. The cornerstone of the tank waste remediation effort is the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). As currently designed, the capability of the WTP to treat and immobilize the Hanford tank wastes in the expected lifetime of the plant is questionable. For this reason, DOE has been pursuing supplemental treatment options for selected wastes. If implemented, these supplemental treatments will route certain waste components to processing and disposition pathways outside of WTP and thus will accelerate the overall Hanford tank waste remediation mission.