Issues Briefing on the Testbed Initiative

The Department of Energy at Hanford is conducting a 2,000 gallon Test Bed Initiative (TBI) to demonstrate the feasibility of options for retrieval and treatment of the low activity portion of tank waste other than vitrification. Cesium and other components of tank waste that are highly radioactive are first separated out of the waste so that it the material is in fact low level waste. Then the TBI will use existing processes and commercial facilities to immobilize the treated waste into a solid form which will then be disposed of at Waste Control Specialists LLC (WCS) in Andrews, Texas. A smaller scale test with 3 gallons of tank waste was treated and disposed in 2017.

The video shows an Issue Briefing provided to the Board Members of the Hanford Communities by a proponent of the technology and includes comments from the Nuclear Waste Program of the Washington Department of Ecology.