Workers recently broke ground on a new $400 million facility aimed at getting even more hazardous tank waste pre-treated prior to long-term storage and disposal either through vitrification or grouting.

The new Advanced Modular Pretreatment System, or AMPS, will be able to pretreat up to 3.6 million gallons of tank waste per year, or three times the capacity of the existing pretreatment system, according to a release. It will be located next to the existing AP Farm in Hanford’s 200 East Area.

Hanford contractor Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, or H2C, along with Fowler General Construction and AVANTech will build the new facility.

Current construction efforts are focused on demolition and relocation of existing utilities and other infrastructure and support structures at the site. The facility is expected to come online by the end of 2029.

AMPS will remove 99.9% of radioactivity from waste before it is either vitrified or grouted. That’s similar to the existing Tank Side Cesium Removal System, or TSCR, which recently set a new record for pretreating waste.

“AMPS reflects the experience our teams have gained from designing, building and operating TSCR for the last four years,” said Ken Langdon, H2C president and program manager, in a statement. “By applying those lessons learned, we are delivering a system with higher pretreatment capacity to support WTP and grouting.”

The additional volume of pretreated waste will exceed the 2 million gallon-treatment capacity of the Waste Treatment & Immobilization Plant, or vit plant, which solidifies pretreated waste into a stable glass form via vitrification.

That’s why the new pretreatment project illustrates the importance of implementing the U.S. Department of Energy’s strategy to use vitrification and another treatment process called grouting to treat Hanford’s tens of millions of gallons of tank waste, Hanford officials said.

“This groundbreaking is another important step in advancing Hanford’s cleanup mission,” said Ray Geimer, manager of the Hanford Field Office, in a statement. “The work we are doing today prepares the site for a higher-capacity tank-side treatment that will allow us to dispose of tank waste more quickly as part of our dual glass-plus-grout strategy.” 

DOE began pushing the “dual glass-plus-grout" strategy earlier this year, arguing that it will allow for a much quicker cleanup that takes decades off the cleanup effort at the site while saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

The Washington Department of Ecology, in partnership with DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has already approved dual application of grouting and vitrifying of some tank waste at the site under the Holistic Agreement finalized in early 2025. DOE is now seeking to further modify its cleanup permits to allow even more waste to be grouted.

Grouting was first considered in the 1980s and 1990s as a more affordable approach to cleanup, though it was abandoned after initial applications demonstrated technical challenges. It also faced opposition for environmental and safety concerns.

Beginning in 2016, DOE began reevaluating grout alongside other waste treatment methods at Hanford as part of its Test Bed Initiative. In 2025, the federal agency shipped about 2,000 gallons of pretreated liquid low-activity waste from Hanford to commercial facilities in Utah and Texas via truck for grouting and permanent disposal, which federal officials considered successful, according to the Government Accountability Office.

In mid-August, Perma-Fix Pacific Northwest, EnergySolutions and Waste Control Specialists were awarded $4 billion in subcontracts to assist with treating, transporting and storing grouted waste from the site.

DOE has in past reports described grout as a solid cement-like material. Images of grout with a loose, clay-like consistency recently produced at Perma-Fix have raised concerns in recent months among state ecology officials and Hanford watchdogs.