Office of River Protection (ORP) Mission Completion Strategy
DOE's Office of River Protection (ORP) is readying itself to commence construction of a Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) that will start the process of turning Hanford tank waste into glass. The plant is state-of-the art and includes reasonable flexibility to improve operations as technology and operational understandings improve. During its 40 year design life the plant has the capability to treat half of the total volume of tank waste and reduce risk to the public by up to ninety percent. Looking beyond initial processing towards the project end state, however, it is apparent that ORP's baseline approach is part of the issue raised by the DOE Secretary when he said that $300 billion and 75 years is too costly and too long for DOE's environmental cleanups. ORP has reviewed its cost and schedule drivers and has started identifying areas where better technologies and risk-based strategies could substantially decrease its life cycle cost and schedule. Specific technologies under consideration will be discussed along with expected return on investment. ORP is totally committed to taking all steps necessary during cleanup to protect human health and the environment and to comply with appropriate regulations and commitments. But, ORP is also very conscious of the fact that the history of Hanford production and tank farm operations has resulted in very large tank-to-tank variabilities in the waste constituents. Not all tank wastes demand the same high level of rigor in treatment as provided by the WTP in order to protect people and the environment. Parallel treatment paths, keyed to the hazards and chemical challenges each tank presents, need to be developed. The WTP vitrification capabilities should be deployed for the higher risk wastes that require vitrification. By getting wastes in the proper paths for treatment based upon their chemical characteristics and inherent risks, ORP will be able to both accelerate the cleanup schedule and bring its life cycle and annual funding requirements into line. The WTP needs to be managed and its throughput enhanced to vitrify all of the HLW and approximately 50% of the low-level tank waste by about 2030. That represents the lion's share of the current and long-term risk presented by the tanks. For much of the low activity waste currently in the tanks, parallel treatment technologies are required that protect people and the environment but require less time and less cost than the total vitrification option presents. Any such technologies that ORP deploys must have sound, defensible bases with the prerequisite QA pedigrees. Providing parallel paths for lower risk wastes will allow ORP to avoid the 20-30 year treatment schedule that lower risk tanks would otherwise face. Potential parallel paths will be described. ORP also needs to deploy and test technologies to demonstrate that its tank farms can be successfully closed. Starting such a demonstration during the period while the plant is under construction will allow ORP to start developing critical data that it will need for permanent closures at a later date. It will take many years of testing such demonstration activities and monitoring to develop confidence in tank closure approaches. If ORP starts such an effort, practicing on smaller, more benign tanks, it will reap significant institutional benefits in the near-term and have far better information when it is ready to start to close entire tank farms in the future.
- Research Organization:
- DOE-ORP (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC27-99RL14047
- OSTI ID:
- 807665
- Report Number(s):
- ORP-10160-FP, Rev.0; TRN: US0301957
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Conference title not supplied, Conference location not supplied, Conference dates not supplied; Other Information: PBD: 24 Feb 2002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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