The Department of Energy and Bechtel National have commissioned the Hanford nuclear cleanup site in Washington to safely transform nuclear waste that has been leaking into safe non-radioactive glass.
Yesterday we celebrated making history! The Vit Plant team has officially filled the first container with test glass poured from Melter 1! We marked this achievement yesterday, with Vit Plant, @HanfordSite, and @Ecyhanford leaders congratulating the team. pic.twitter.com/Z8cGGbf2lB
— Hanford Vit Plant (@HanfordVitPlant) December 5, 2023
According to ENR Northwest, 300-ton meters of nuclear waste will be melted and mixed with other materials to transform it into non-radioactive glass through a process called vitrification. This is expected to prevent contaminant leakage.
In July, this method was successfully tested. It includes heating nuclear waste to 2,100°F to produce non-radioactive glass.
Then, in September, 30,000 pounds of molten glass beads were successfully added to steel test containers.
Due to the continued successes, now 90% of the Hanford nuclear waste is slated to be transformed into this new glass and stored.
ENR Northwest reported DOE Hanford site manager Brian Vance, stated, “With this first container of glass produced, we are entering the next era of risk reduction in the Hanford environmental cleanup mission as we work towards the start of tank waste immobilization.”
The project is slated to heat a second melter in 2024 and continue this new effort to combat nuclear waste leakage.
According to the Hanford Vit Plant, 56 million gallons of nuclear waste created during plutonium production in World War II and the Cold War eras were being stored in 158 underground tanks in the area, but 60 of the tanks have been leaking.
Not only has this contaminated the ground but also a 50-mile stretch of the nearby Columbia River.
In order to combat this, the Hanford Vit Plant is expanding its use of the process of vitrification.
Its website states this process “has been used successfully elsewhere for decades but has never been attempted at the scale of or on waste as complex as that stored at Hanford.”
The waste that has been currently vitrified was considered “low-activity,” but the plant also noted on its website, “High-level waste will be processed and vitrified later in a separate process.”