Hanford Treatment Will Cut 12 Years Off Cleanup

As the VIT Plant continues to pick up speed with Hanford waste cleanup, a new treatment announced by DOE indicates over a decade could be cut off cleanup time.

New Process Removes Radioactivity Before Waste hits the VIT Plant

For just over the last year, the VIT, or vitrification plant at Hanford has been glassifying and stabilizing liquid waste from hundreds of tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The VIT process prepares it for safe, inert storage, and possible moving of it elsewhere down the road.

Now, A New Process Could Cut 12 Years Off Cleanup

Monday, November 2nd, DOE's Hanford Field Office announced the groundbreaking for the new Advanced Modular Pretreatment System, or AMPS, which will triple the speed of waste treatment.

Radiation Treatment Site---DOE Hanford release

Located next to the AP tank farm at the 200 East Area, the AMPS removes 99.9 percent of radioactive materials from the waste before its glassified.

DOE Officials Say It will Triple Cleanup Speed.

According to DOE Officials:

"This next-generation system will enable Hanford to pretreat a combined 3.6 million gallons of waste per year – three times as much as today. This is significantly more than the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant’s maximum treatment capacity of about 2 million gallons per year."

DOE also released a video talking about the new process, and how it will cut 12 years off the East Tank Farm Cleanup Project.