Process Chemistry for the Pretreatment of Hanford Tank Wastes

Methods are being developed to treat and dispose of large volumes of radioactive wastes stored in underground tanks at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hanford Site. Under current guidelines, the high-level waste (HLW) will be vitrified into borosilicate glass and disposed of in a geologic repository, and the low-level waste (LLW) will be converted to grout and disposed of by shallow land burial on the Hanford Site. Because of the high cost of vitrification and geologic disposal, pretreatment methods are being developed to minimize the volume of HLW requiring disposal.