Hanford in 2026 is a mix of long-awaited wins and hard truths we can’t ignore. While we celebrate real, measurable progress on some of the site’s most dangerous cleanup projects, we are also bracing for major decisions that could take us in the wrong direction. 

In October 2025, Hanford achieved something decades in the making – glassified low-activity tank waste. For the first time, Hanford’s tank waste was pretreated and immobilized in glass, a milestone that generations of workers, scientists, whistleblowers, and community advocates fought to reach.

The most difficult work still lies ahead: treating high-level waste. This intensely radioactive material is the heart of Hanford’s tank waste problem. The success of the entire cleanup depends on whether DOE can safely and reliably immobilize Hanford’s high-level waste in glass and secure a long-term deep geologic repository for the vitrified waste.

Moving WESF capsules 

The Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF), home to 1,936 highly radioactive cesium and strontium capsules in degrading concrete storage pools, is a serious risk. The WESF capsules contain roughly 80 million curies, which is one-third of the total radioactivity at Hanford.

The capsule transfer operations started in November 2025, and it takes two to three months to fully load and transport each cask to dry storage. As of January 2026, one vertical concrete cask loaded with 121 cesium capsules has been welded shut and successfully moved to the dry storage pad. If everything goes according to plan, it will take about three years to transfer the capsules from start to finish.

Workers have been training for this complicated and dangerous job for years, performing facility upgrades, mock-up testing and dry‑storage preparations with steady, disciplined progress.

The engineering achievements over the past year are significant. Credit is due to the workers, contractors, state Department of Ecology and U.S. Department of Energy which are reducing a huge risk on site.

More money, more cleanup

At $3.34 billion, Hanford’s FY26 federal cleanup budget keeps critical projects moving in the right direction, thanks to a slight increase from FY25’s $3.07 billion cleanup budget. In a political climate where cuts are common, it is encouraging to see Hanford remain a priority.

But an increased budget is not the same as a compliant one. To ensure cleanup stays on track and to protect human health and the environment, Hanford’s budget should be at least $6.15 billion in FY26 and even more in the years to come.

A commitment to compliant well-managed cleanup funding would save billions, get the cleanup done faster and reduce the risk of catastrophic releases of deadly waste.

DOE must spend more now to spend less later. If not, future generations will pay the price.

Grout takes us in wrong direction

In 2026, the Tri-Party Agencies continue to embrace grout as a solution to move pretreated tank waste from the 200 West Area to an off-site disposal facility. Getting millions of gallons of tank waste off-site sounds great, but we have reservations about using grout to solidify tank waste.

The June 2025 grout test on 2,000 gallons of liquid pretreated tank waste did not gather data on the ratio of waste to grout.

According to the Supplement Analysis, the final volume was not measured quantitatively by the vendor. The grout-to-waste ratio will determine the number of shipments, how long it takes to ship the waste in a grouted form, and cost estimates. Without this and other hard data, we remain skeptical of the cost and schedule estimates for this project. Tank waste should be immobilized in glass, a technology that is finally working.

Projections cited in the decision-making documents show multiple shipments of waste leaving the site every day for more than 10 years. Such a substantial impact on transportation corridors deserves significantly more deliberation before moving full steam ahead.

The TPA agencies have until June 2026 to announce where and how tank waste from 200 West Area will be grouted and disposed. These decisions should be informed by public input, consultation with tribal nations, and impacted communities along transportation routes.

Working together in divided times

Hanford offers a larger lesson for the country right now. Cleanup at this scale is hard, messy and frustrating. People disagree, sometimes fiercely. Agencies, tribal nations, workers, advocates and local communities do not always see cleanup the same way. But when we stay at the table to both celebrate real progress and address the challenges honestly, we prove that collaboration is still possible.

Hanford cleanup could be the model we need: A reminder that even in an era of deep division, we can work together, argue in good faith, and keep moving toward solutions none of us could reach alone.

Nikolas Peterson is the executive director of Hanford Challenge.