Defense waste treatment and disposal activities at the Hanford Site

This paper presents an overview of defense waste treatment and disposal activities at the Hanford Site, a 1,500-square-kilometer federal facility in southcentral Washington State. Significant volumes of wastes, including radioactive, hazardous, and mixed wastes, have accumulated during the operating history of the Hanford Site. Present site operations also result in the generation of such wastes. Major waste categories at the Hanford Site include double-shell tank wastes, single-shell tank wastes, encapsulated radiostrontium and radiocesium, stored solid wastes, and liquid effluents discharged to the soil column. Significant strides have been made towards providing regulatory-complaint storage, treatment, and disposal facilities for these major waste categories. Specific accomplishments include the completion of the first campaign to incorporate low-level liquids into a grout matrix for disposal, initiation of the single-shell tank waste characterization program, construction of a number of Hanford Central Waste Complex facilities, and initiation of design on the Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant. 1 ref., 7 figs.