The system that removes nearly all the radioactivity from tank waste stored at Hanford before it is stabilized in glass processed the most waste ever in a single run in September. 

The Tank-Side Cesium Removal system, or TSCR, processed more than 220,000 gallons of radioactive tank waste during its latest processing run, according to a release. That’s the most ever run through the system at one time since it began operating four years ago. 

“This was a demanding run, but our Operations, Maintenance and Engineering teams kept working through the issues and safely delivered the largest amount of pretreated waste TSCR has processed in one batch so far,” said Ken Langdon, president and program manager for contractor Hanford Tank Waste Operations & Closure, or H2C, in a statement. He added that teams have since completed routine maintenance that will have the system ready to process more waste soon. 

Waste treated by TSCR is stored in another tank before it is sent to the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, commonly called the vit plant, to be vitrified or turned into glass for long term storage.  

However, pretreatment must stop until the storage tank for treated waste has capacity. That bottleneck is why local and federal leaders with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management are advocating a strategy that would allow treated waste to be converted to a form called grout as well as vitrified.  

DOE already has clearance to make grout from some byproducts of treating tank waste. The agency is pressing state Ecology officials to further modify its cleanup permits to expand grouting further to accelerate cleanup efforts. 

However, Hanford watchdog Hanford Challenge and ecology officials recently said they are looking into concerns that grout isn’t being made into an expected solid form, raising questions about the safety of the material. Hanford officials have told the Journal the grouted waste meets requirements for safety, transportation and storage.