Review of the Draft Analysis of Supplemental
Treatment Approaches of Low-Activity Waste
at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation
Review #2
Committee on Supplemental Treatment of
Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation
Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board
Division on Earth and Life Studies
A Consensus Study Report of
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
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This activity was supported by award DE-EM0001172/NAS Proposal Number 10003497 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-48351-3
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Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/25236
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. Review of the Draft Analysis of the Supplemental Treatment Approaches of Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation: Review #2. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/25236.
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COMMITTEE ON SUPPLEMENTAL TREATMENT OF LOW-ACTIVITY WASTE AT THE HANFORD NUCLEAR RESERVATION
JOHN S. APPLEGATE (Chair), Indiana University, Bloomington
ALLEN G. CROFF (Vice-Chair), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (retired), St. Augustine, Florida
MARGARET S. Y. CHU, M.S. Chu + Associates, LLC, New York, New York
KENNETH R. CZERWINSKI, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
RACHEL J. DETWILER, Beton Consulting Engineers, LLC, Mendota Heights, Minnesota
TIMOTHY A. DEVOL, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
RODNEY C. EWING, Stanford University, Stanford, California
CRAIG S. HANSEN, Independent Consultant, Clinton, Tennessee
CATHY MIDDLECAMP, University of Wisconsin–Madison
ALFRED P. SATTELBERGER, Argonne National Laboratory (retired), Argonne, Illinois
BARRY E. SCHEETZ, The Pennsylvania State University, State College
ANNE E. SMITH, National Economic Research Associates, Inc., Washington, DC
CHRIS G. WHIPPLE, ENVIRON (retired), Lafayette, California
Technical Adviser
DAVID W. JOHNSON, JR., Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies (retired), Bedminster, New Jersey1
Staff
CHARLES D. FERGUSON, Study Director
TONI GREENLEAF, Administrative and Financial Associate
DARLENE GROS, Senior Program Assistant
___________________
1 He became a technical adviser on May 1, 2018.
NUCLEAR AND RADIATION STUDIES BOARD
GEORGE APOSTOLAKIS (Chair), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (emeritus), Los Angeles, California
JAMES A. BRINK (Vice Chair), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
STEVEN M. BECKER, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
AMY BERRINGTON DE GONZÁLEZ, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
DAVID J. BRENNER, Columbia University, New York
MARGARET S. Y. CHU, M.S. Chu + Associates, LLC, New York, New York
TISSA H. ILLANGASEKARE, Colorado School of Mines, Golden
CAROL M. JANTZEN, Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, South Carolina
NANCY JO NICHOLAS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico
HENRY D. ROYAL, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
DANIEL O. STRAM, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
WILLIAM H. TOBEY, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
SERGEY V. YUDINTSEV, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Staff
CHARLES D. FERGUSON, Director
JENNIFER HEIMBERG, Senior Program Officer
OURANIA KOSTI, Senior Program Officer
TONI GREENLEAF, Administrative and Financial Associate
LAURA D. LLANOS, Administrative and Financial Associate
DARLENE GROS, Senior Program Assistant
Preface
The scale and complexity of the radioactive and hazardous waste disposal problem at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is well known. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) has called Hanford the most challenging cleanup task in DOE’s nuclear complex.
DOE’s current plan for treating the nearly 56 million gallons of radioactive and heterogeneous waste contained in 177 large tanks is to separate it into two waste streams: a high-level waste (HLW) stream that will have less than 10 percent of the volume but more than 90 percent of the radioactivity, and a low-activity waste (LAW) stream that will have more than 90 percent of the volume but less than 10 percent of the radioactivity. Notably, DOE’s determination as to whether a volume of waste is considered LAW depends on the removal of “key radionuclides to the maximum extent that is technically and economically practical,” as stated in DOE’s Radioactive Waste Manual. But this processing could still leave significant amounts of long-lived radionuclides in the LAW stream. Once the under-construction Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) becomes operational, it will vitrify the HLW stream and at least one-third to perhaps one-half of the LAW stream. The excess LAW that still needs to be treated is called supplemental LAW (SLAW). DOE, the Washington State Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—the three parties under the legally binding 1989 Tri-Party Agreement—have yet to agree on the SLAW treatment method.
The use of a technology other than vitrification for any LAW is controversial for use at Hanford—though it has been adopted at other DOE-EM sites—and such use is currently opposed by the State of Washington, key Tribal Nations, and many Hanford stakeholders. In Section 3134 of the fiscal year (FY) 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress directed DOE to contract with a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) to analyze at least three potential technologies for treating the SLAW—vitrification, grouting, and fluidized bed steam reforming—and to report on its findings. It further directed DOE to contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to undertake a concurrent, independent peer review of the FFRDC report not only when the report is complete, but also at certain points during the effort. Congress also expressly required the FFRDC and the National Academies review committee to solicit and consider stakeholder input at every step of the process.
DOE appointed Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) as the FFRDC to lead this study, and then SRNL assembled a team of experts from SRNL and other national laboratories to perform the analysis. The National Academies appointed its committee to conduct the overlapping review. The first committee report, published on June 8, 2018, began an iterative exchange between the FFRDC team and the National Academies committee which—together with stakeholder comments—is intended to ultimately lead to a final report on which DOE can rely in reaching a decision on the management of SLAW. This second committee report is an interim report that provides the committee’s review of the FFRDC team’s draft report, dated July 15, 2018.
The FFRDC team has presented its work to the review committee three times: once in an introductory meeting in Washington, DC, on December 12-13, 2017, once in a meeting describing the status of the FFRDC’s draft analysis held in Richland, Washington, on February 28 and March 1, 2018, and most recently in a meeting describing the FFRDC’s draft report held in Richland, Washington, on July 23-24, 2018. The committee is most grateful for the time and effort that went into the team’s presentations, as well as the presentations by other interested government agencies, stakeholders, and members of the public. Between the second and third meetings, as the review indicates, the FFRDC team has made significant progress. We all recognize, however, that much more remains to be done, and that a comprehensive and final
committee evaluation must await the comprehensive and final FFRDC team report. Accordingly, the committee’s review report makes relatively few formal findings and recommendations, and the bulk of this review, like the previous review, consists of observations and suggestions that are intended to provide the FFRDC team members with guidance and assistance—should they decide to take it—in developing their final report.
We hope that the present review will provide a useful guide to the work that has been completed to date, and additional guidance as it progresses. The committee will meet two more times in Washington State (the next time is in late November), and we look forward to continued dialogue with the FFRDC team, interested government representatives, Hanford stakeholders, and interested members of the public.
John S. Applegate, Chair
Allen G. Croff, Vice-Chair
Committee on Supplemental Treatment of Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation
Acknowledgments
A number of people and organizations contributed to the successful completion of this report. The committee wishes to thank the study sponsor, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM), for supporting this project, and especially the following staff:
Dieter Bohrmann, DOE-Office of River Protection (ORP)
Paula Call, DOE-ORP
Betsy Connell, DOE-EM
Elaine Diaz, DOE-ORP
Beth Moore, DOE-EM
Gary Pyles, DOE-ORP
Rob Seifert, DOE-EM
Linda Suttora, DOE-EM
The committee also thanks the presenters and speakers who gave high-quality presentations during the three public meetings as listed in Appendix D. In particular, for the most recent third public meeting, on July 23-24, 2018, the committee is pleased to note the several very informative presentations given by Alex Smith of the Washington State Department of Ecology, Alfrieda Peters of the Yakama Nation, and the team members of the Federally Funded Research and Development Center led by the Savannah River National Laboratory. In addition, the committee is grateful for other submitted public comments, which were useful in helping the committee better understand the public’s concerns and views.
The committee is grateful for the outstanding assistance provided by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine staff in preparing the report. The chair and vice-chair are also thankful for the time and energy devoted by the committee members.
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Reviewer Acknowledgments
This Consensus Study Report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published report as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Lake H. Barrett, independent consultant, Venice, Florida
Larry Camper, independent consultant, Montgomery Village, Maryland
Jonathan “JD” Dowell, Fluor, Kennewick, Washington
John T. Greeves, independent consultant, Frederick, Maryland
William E. Kennedy, W.E. Kennedy Consulting, Benton City, Washington
Steven Krahn, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Timothy Milner, Atkins, Columbia, South Carolina
Monica Olvera de la Cruz, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Ian L. Pegg, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
Kevin Smith, independent consultant, Richland, Washington
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations of this report nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Michael L. Corradini, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Robert J. Budnitz, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the authoring committee and the National Academies.
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Contents
The Hanford Region’s Environment and the Tribal Nations
The Waste Tanks and Their Condition
Vitrification, the Concept of “As Good as Glass” for Other Waste Forms, and Waste Disposal Options
2 THE COMMITTEE’S MAJOR OBSERVATIONS AND OVERARCHING ASSESSMENT OF THE FFRDC’S DRAFT REPORT
The Need for a Comparative Analysis
3 ANALYSIS OF THE ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT APPROACHES
Safety of the Alternatives Following Waste Disposal
Confidence in Waste Form Production Technologies
Costs of Waste Formation Processes
4 ADDITIONAL PROCESSES AFFECTING THE ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT APPROACHES
Load Leveling and Waste Blending
5 THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS AND EXPERT ELICITATION
Observations Regarding the Appropriateness of AHP for the Section 3134 Report
A SECTION 3134 OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2017 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT