Hanford Site 4

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Introduction Section

Nuclear Material and Facility Stabilization Section

Environmental Restoration Section

Landlord Section

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Hanford Site has every type of waste found in the complex. Managing the existing and future waste is the largest life-cycle cost at the site. Hanford Site waste management programs have undergone major redirection during the past Fiscal Year. Because of this major redirection the resulting changes may not have been fully integrated into the overall waste management strategy. Cost estimates have been prepared as part of multiyear program plans. Information for the next three years is budget-quality, but the estimates for the outyears (FY 1999 and after) are a combination of modeled costs, professional judgment, and projections of current costs. Because outyear activities have not been firmly identified, plausible assumptions have been made in the following discussion about the types of facilities needed, the dates on which facilities will be operational, facility processing rates, and completion dates of facility operation. It has also been necessary to make best-judgment assumptions about dates for shipping high-level waste, defense spent nuclear fuel, and transuranic waste to the Yucca Mountain repository and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

Since the Waste Management program receives waste from other generators as well as from its own activities, its costs reflect treatment, storage and disposal, as applicable, to all waste it receives. The cost for treatment and disposal of offsite waste is born by the generators. Waste generators are responsible for characterizing, packaging, and transporting waste to Hanford's aste Management program facilities.

High-Level Waste

The Hanford Site has stored high-level radioactive waste in large underground storage tanks since 1944. The first single-shell tank was constructed with a 10- to 20-year design life. Approximately 210 million liters (55 million gallons) of waste have accumulated in 149 single-shell tanks and 28 double-shell tanks. This radioactive waste consists of different chemicals and is in the form of liquids, slurries, salt cakes, and sludges. The high-level waste typically contains over 99 percent of the radioactivity generated from the reactor and processing activities. This waste is, therefore, the most difficult and costly to manage.

Sixty-seven of the older single-shell tanks have or are assumed to have leaked approximately 3.8 million liters (1 million gallons) into the surrounding soil. No waste has been added to the single-shell tanks since 1980. None of the 28 newer, double-shell tanks (the first of which was placed into service in 1971) have leaked to date. These tanks have a 25- to 50-year design life and will be used to store waste and sluice water prior to vitrification processing of the waste. The tanks have a current inventory of approximately 209,000 cubic meters (273,000 cubic yards) of high-level waste.

GENERATION AND HANDLING

The fuel processing methods generated acidic waste streams. To neutralize the acid and minimizing tank corrosion, sodium hydroxide was added to the waste before it was transferred to the tanks. As a result, the tanks currently contain strongly alkaline solutions. Post-processing of some of the waste to recover uranium or to recover fission products has resulted in the addition of ferrocyanide and some organic compounds listed as hazardous by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. However, tank waste is mostly inorganic salts of sodium hydroxide and sodium salts of nitrate, nitrite, carbonate, aluminate, and phosphate, and hydrous oxides of aluminum, iron, and manganese. The radioactive components consist primarily of mixed fission products, such as strontium-90, cesium-137, and isotopes of plutonium, uranium, and americium.

C Plant and other miscellaneous sources have also added to the tank waste inventory. Although the amount of waste generated is relatively small (3 million liters [803,000 gallons]), the waste typically has a high strontium content. Other sources of waste include operations in the 300 Area, 100 Area production reactors, various laboratories, and catch tanks. To absorb residual supernatant liquors, diatomaceous earth was added to six tanks, and type 2 Portland cement was added to a seventh. Miscellaneous waste streams include Hanford residual liquor, waste from Hanford laboratory operations, filtered Hanford site water, and phosphate decontamination waste from the N Reactor.

The double-shell tanks continue to receive waste generated by decommissioning and cleanup operations in the 100, 200, 300, and 400 Areas. Waste directed to the double-shell tanks includes effluents from routine maintenance and deactivation of the Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant, waste from B Plant Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility maintenance activities and condensate, waste from T Plant operations, laboratory waste from the 222-S Laboratory in the 200­West Area and the 300 Area laboratories, miscellaneous waste from ion exchange resin regeneration, and equipment flush water. Additional liquid waste is being added to the double-shell tanks as the remaining liquids are pumped from single-shell tanks for interim-stabilization. Operation of an evaporator facility removes water from this waste, thereby recovering additional tank capacity. The Effluent Treatment Facility in the 200 Area provides final treatment for the water from this waste.

To store, handle, treat, and immobilize tank waste safely, cleanup personnel must know the chemical and physical properties of the tank waste. This waste characterization requires taking samples to analyze the contents of the tanks. The current baseline calls for the issuance of tank characterization reports for all 177 Hanford waste tanks by FY 1999.

In addition, there are about 1,900 double-walled stainless steel capsules containing either cesium chloride or strontium fluoride. The cesium and strontium were recovered from the tank waste and contain approximately 40 percent of the radioactivity (as measured in curies) in the tank waste. The Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility currently stores these capsules. While no definite plans are in place, this report assumes the capsules would be transferred to a new facility for interim storage in 2011, until they are sent to Yucca Mountain for disposal in FY 2043.

TREATMENT

Treatment activities include retrieval, pre-treatment, and waste immobilization. All waste will be retrieved from double-shell and single-shell tanks. A substantial amount of secondary waste will be generated as retrieval equipment is contaminated and obstructions are removed from the tanks. Some equipment, such as sluicers, valves, and pumps, may be left in the tanks; removed equipment must be stored, transported, and treated as waste. Retrieval activities and costs also include tank farm closure (stabilization) and long-term monitoring. Four retrieval systems (for four double-shell tanks) are planned before 2002 to allow room for short-term storage of single-shell tank waste and sluice water. Retrieval of waste from the single-shell tanks will begin in FY 1997 and is planned for completion by 2018. Sluicing (using low-pressure, high-volume streams of water to mobilize waste) will be one of the methods used to retrieve waste from the single-shell tanks. Other retrieval methods may also be needed to remove the hard sludge heels and other difficult-to-remove waste.

Commercial firms, who will design, construct, operate, decontaminate, and decommission their own equipment and facilities to treat tank waste, will bear primary responsibility for treating high-level tank waste at Hanford Site. They will be paid per unit of vitrified (solidified) waste that meets Department of Energy specifications. The first contract will be awarded in FY 1996; operation will continue through FY 2005, with six to 13 percent of the tank waste vitrified. After this demonstration phase, the remainder of tank waste will be treated under the final contract awarded in FY 2005, with operations completed by FY 2028.

The retrieved tank waste will require pre-treatment (separation of the waste into smaller high-level waste and larger low-level mixed waste fractions) to reduce the volume of high-level waste for disposal in the Yucca Mountain repository. Pre-treatment consists of both physical separation into a liquid and sludge and chemical processing of each fraction. Pre-treatment of the liquid waste fraction will chemically separate such radionuclides as cesium, strontium, and technetium. These radionuclides will be added to the high-level waste fraction. High-level waste sludges will be washed with a caustic solution to dissolve such elements as aluminum, chromium, and zirconium. The dissolved material will be added to the low-level mixed waste fraction. The remaining high-level waste sludges and separated radionuclides from the pre-treatment activities will be combined with glass-forming materials and melted in a high-temperature melter. The resulting glass will be put into stainless steel canisters, cooled, seal-welded, and leak-tested. This report expects that approximately 7,200 canisters of high-level waste will be produced.

Several technical issues must be resolved before the tank farms can be closed, including remediation approaches for residual tank waste and ancillary equipment, the disposal strategy for single-shell and double-shell tanks, a subsidence prevention approach for waste left in place, and a decision about using surface barriers. Under the current schedule, a tank closure plan will be submitted by December 2004; closure of the first operable unit or tank farm will begin by March FY 2012; all single-shell tank farms will close by September 2024; and all double-shell tank farms will close by FY 2032. The tank closure plan will determine the levels and methods of long-term monitoring that will be required for the tank farm areas after FY 2032. For the purposes of this report, the cost estimate assumes the empty tanks will be filled with gravel and capped.

STORAGE AND DISPOSAL

After it is solidified, high-level waste sealed in canisters will be transported to an interim storage facility at Hanford until the Yucca Mountain repository is ready to accept them. Shipments to the repository are currently estimated to begin in FY 2035. When all of the waste has been shipped, the interim storage facility will be decontaminated and closed. Cost estimates include these activities.

The low-level mixed waste resulting from the pre-treatment processes described above will be vitrified and disposed of in near-surface vaults at Hanford as it is generated. The waste will be placed in large containers prior to disposal and will be disposed of in a retrievable form, as required by the State.

Spent Nuclear Fuel

Several types of spent fuel are present at Hanford. The largest volume of material is the spent N Reactor fuel currently stored in K Basins. The first priority in the Spent Nuclear Fuel Project is to expeditiously remove, to a location away from the Columbia River, the spent fuel from two fuel storage basins in the 100-K Area. Almost 7,500 canisters containing 2,100 metric tons of uranium fuel are stored in basins: approximately 3,800 in the K­West Basin and approximately 3,600 in the K-East Basin. Several other types of spent fuel are also stored onsite at different locations. Spent nuclear fuel contains the fission products produced in nuclear reactors. It is, therefore, highly radioactive, and management procedures similar to those for high-level waste are necessary. This report assumes that Spent Nuclear Fuel project activities will generate 2,100 metric tons heavy metal of spent nuclear fuel.

GENERATION AND HANDLING

Uranium metal fuel with zirconium cladding was used in the N Reactor. The 2,100 metric tons (Uranium) spent nuclear fuel remaining in storage was generated by the operation of the N Reactor from 1970 to 1986. Beginning in 1975, spent fuel from N Reactor was transferred to the two 100-K Area storage basins. The 100-K Area fuel storage basins, east and west, constructed in the early 1950s with a 20-year design life, are unlined concrete pools located approximately 0.4 kilometers (0.25 mile) from the banks of the Columbia River. The K-East Basin has a history of leaking.

Some of the spent fuel cladding was damaged during reactor discharge and handling. The fuel was not intended for long-term wet storage and, because of the clad damage, continues to degrade slowly. Corrosion products from the damaged fuel have contaminated the K-East Basin water and have generated a large volume (approximately 50 cubic meters [65 cubic yards]) of sludge. Cleanup of the basin water will result in the generation of spent ion exchanger material, which must be disposed of at the low-level waste burial ground.

TREATMENT

Fuel conditioning is required to stop fuel corrosion and deterioration and is expected to be a two-step process. First the fuel will be vacuum dried in the 100-K Area (near the K Basins), then it will be further conditioned in the Canister Storage Building. During FY 1996, the process parameters to support the design of the drying and conditioning facilities will be defined, the design contract will be awarded, and the design activities will begin. According to the current schedule, fuel conditioning will require two years, beginning late in FY 1999. Fuel conditioning facilities will be deactivated when fuel-conditioning operations are completed. Following deactivation, the Environmental Restoration program will take over the conditioning facilities for decontamination and decommissioning.

Characterizing the fuel is an integral part of this plan. In the late spring of 1995, hot lab testing in the 327 Building in the 300 Area was begun on three fuel elements from the K-West Basin. Characterization of both the stored fuel and basin sludge will continue. After the fuel, sludge, and debris are removed from the K Basins, preparations will begin for turnover to Environmental Restoration.

STORAGE

The Canister Storage Building will be located in the 200-East Area of Hanford. During FY 1996, the design of the Canister Storage Building will be completed and construction will start after the Environmental Impact Statement Record of Decision is issued. Current estimates for the interim storage period are approximately 40 years. (The Richland Operations Office has taken action to allow a 35-year extension.) Once all of the fuel has been removed from K Basins and stored in the Canister Storage Building, the Waste Management program will assume management and operations. After this interim storage period, the Canister Storage Building will be closed and turned over to the Environmental Restoration program for decontamination and decommissioning.

The following additional spent fuels are also in storage at Hanford: fuel materials associated with operation of the Fast Flux Test Facility, which are currently stored in the 308 Building and at the Fast Flux Test Facility; Core 2 fuel from the Shippingport Pressurized Water Reactor, currently stored at T Plant; spent fuel from the Los Alamos Molten Plutonium Reactor Experiment and the University of Washington, currently stored at the Plutonium Finishing Plant; fuel assemblies, fuel pins, and fuel pieces associated with hot cell work, currently stored in the 300 Area; and spent nuclear fuel from Oregon State University, currently stored in drums in the 200-West Area Low-Level Waste Burial Ground.

Fuel from the 308 Building and the Fast Flux Test Facility will be consolidated in the 400 Area Interim Storage Area outside the Fast Flux Test Facility. This fuel consolidation is a part of the deactivation of facilities in the 300 and 400 Areas and will reduce potential risks in current storage areas. Remaining fuel from the Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant has been transferred to the K basins; any fuel recovered during the N Basin cleanout conducted by the Environmental Restoration program will also be transferred into the K Basins.

Once the Canister Storage Building in the 200-East Area has been completed, a 200 Area Interim Storage Area will be constructed adjacent to it. Most of the other spent fuels will be consolidated there. Once the fuels are moved, the Operations Office anticipates they will be managed with the N Reactor spent fuel. For security reasons, some materials will be stored at the Plutonium Finishing Plant. Stored fuel will be managed according to the Record of Decision for the Department of Energy Programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel Management and the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory Environmental Restoration and Waste Management programs Final Environmental Impact Statement.

DISPOSAL

This report assumes the conditioned spent N Reactor fuel will be shipped without further treatment to a geologic repository. This is projected to occur no later than FY 2038 and will require the procurement of an acceptable transportation cask and transport system.

Transuranic Mixed and Transuranic Waste

Transuranic waste has been packaged in containers, segregated from low-level waste, and retrievably stored since May 1, 1970. Before then, the transuranic waste was commingled and buried with the low­level waste. Current plans are to retrieve waste stored as retrievable transuranic waste since 1970 and ship it to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for disposal. Transuranic waste is classified both by the way it is stored and by its handling requirements. Transuranic waste is similar to low-level waste in that it is material used in processing operations contaminated from handling spent fuel plutonium or high-level waste. The toxicity of the transuranic elements require they be handled with care and disposed of in a deep underground repository. Nonretrievable waste will be left in place and capped over. This report assumes this site will dispose of a total of 42,191 cubic meters (55,270 cubic yards) of transuranic and transuranic mixed waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Of this total, 15,982 cubic meters (20,674 cubic yards) are transuranic mixed waste and 26,409 cubic meters (34,596 cubic yards) are transuranic waste. Because the management procedures at Richland for these waste types are similar, they are discussed together. However, the cost estimate has been developed by separating them; therefore, the cost estimates exhibit them separately.

GENERATION AND HANDLING

A variety of facilities throughout the Hanford Site will generate transuranic waste. The Plutonium Finishing Plant will continue to be a significant waste-generator. Retrieval of the waste from the single-shell tanks and from high-level waste vitrification are projected to generate the largest volume of remote-handled waste in the Department of Energy complex. In addition, nuclear facilities that handled spent fuel and transuranic materials are now being deactivated, and deactivation activities are expected to generate contact-handled and remote-handled transuranic waste.

Transuranic waste containers have been retrievably stored in 25 trenches in four burial grounds in the 200-East and 200-West Areas since 1970. Retrievable transuranic waste is predominantly contact-handled but also includes some remote-handled materials.

TREATMENT

The Waste Receiving and Processing Module 1 is a 4,800-square meter (51,736-square foot) structure being constructed in the 200-West Area for contact-handled transuranic waste. Radioactive solid waste will be characterized, treated, and repackaged in this facility. Construction began in 1994 and will be completed in FY 1996. Limited operation is scheduled for FY 1997, with shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant beginning in FY 2007. As waste is sorted and segregated, some material will be reclassified as low-level or low-level mixed waste.

Currently, Hanford does not have the capability to process newly generated remote-handled transuranic waste. However, negotiations under the Tri-Party Agreement between the Department of Energy, the Washington State Department of Ecology, and the Environmental Protection Agency are under way to plan for this capability and set milestone dates. The Richland Operations Office is not planning any land-disposal-restricted treatment of transuranic waste.

Since no facility has yet been selected for this activity, cost estimates assume an existing Department facility (T Plant) will be converted to process remote-handled transuranic waste. Design activities for converting T Plant would be initiated in FY 2003 and would last three years. After the design phase, construction would begin in FY 2006 and would be completed in FY 2008. Processing would begin in FY 2009 and continue through FY 2035.

Retrieval of stored transuranic waste will be split into three phases: 1) Phase 1, retrieving the portion of the stored waste expected to be intact and stored in a single burial ground trench; 2) Phase 2, handling the remainder of retrievably stored waste in trenches; and 3) Phase 3, removing remote-handled waste from burial ground caissons. Phases 1 and 2 will remove mainly contact-handled transuranic waste. Design work is complete for Phase 1, but no construction funding is currently planned for FY 1996. No design work has begun for Phases 2 or 3. Retrievably stored transuranic waste will also be repackaged at the Waste Receiving and Processing Module 1. During retrieval, a large volume increase is expected from repackaging and contamination for materials and soils.

STORAGE

The Transuranic Waste Storage and Assay Facility (224-T), located in the 200 Area, provides approximately 1,070 square meters (11,500 square feet) of storage space for transuranic waste. The Transuranic Waste Storage and Assay Facility was originally designed and built in the mid-1940s as a chemical processing unit for plutonium purification. The Army Corps of Engineers authorized the facility as part of the Manhattan Project. In 1984, the Department of Energy designated the facility for storing and assaying newly generated transuranic waste. After plutonium contamination had been cleaned out, the facility began storage and assay operations in 1985. In addition, the Central Waste Complex, which consists of 20 storage buildings, also stores transuranic waste.

Currently, Hanford does not have a facility for storing newly generated remote-handled waste packages. The only method now available is to shield the waste so the package surface meets contact-handled limits. Properly shielded packages may be stored at the Transuranic Waste Storage and Assay Facility (224-T), at the Central Waste Complex, or in the 200 Area burial grounds.

DISPOSAL

The Waste Receiving and Processing Module 1 will process contact-handled and retrievable buried waste for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. When completed, the remote-handled transuranic waste processing facility will prepare remote-handled transuranic waste for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. This report assumes T Plant to be the facility for processing remote-handled waste. The report also assumes the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant program will develop and provide a transportation system at no additional cost to the Hanford programs.

All disposal costs for transuranic and transuranic mixed waste are included in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant program estimate. The costs included in this estimate are for managing transuranic and transuranic mixed waste and include retrieval, characterization, treatment, and packaging to meet the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant waste acceptance criteria.

Low-Level Mixed Waste

Hanford Facilities began generating both solid and liquid low-level mixed waste in the 1940s. Solid low-level mixed waste has been generated both onsite and offsite. Since 1987, Hanford has stored low-level mixed waste separately from other waste. Liquid radioactive and mixed wastewater are generated at several facilities on the site and are managed at two major facilities. Because both radioactive and mixed wastewaters are combined, all liquid waste is considered to be mixed waste for management purposes. Low-level mixed waste was material used in processing operations contaminated with both hazardous and radioactive materials. They generally have a much lower hazard than high-level, spent nuclear fuel, or transuranic waste. This report assumes Waste Management program activities will generate about 90,000 cubic meters (118,000 cubic yards) of low-level mixed waste.

The Tri-Party Agreement contains provisions pertaining to the treatment of mixed waste, including treatment conducted under land disposal restrictions of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Under the agreement, the Hanford Site annually submits an updated Land Disposal Restrictions Plan for mixed waste. The most recent update was issued in April 1995. Because the Hanford Site has a Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, and the Land Disposal Restrictions Plan is a part of these agreements, the Washington Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency have formally concurred that a Federal Facility Compliance Act Site Treatment Plan is not required.

The Hanford Site could receive approximately 62 cubic meters (81 cubic yards) of low-level mixed waste for treatment over the next five years from eight other Department of Energy and Naval Reactor sites. Discussions with the shipping sites' regulators and the Washington Department of Ecology have been held as part of the approval process for the shipping sites's Site Treatment Plans before their Site Treatment Plans were issued. The generators, start date of delivery, and volume projections are provided in the table below.

The data presented in the table are based upon data received from generating sites concerning the amount of waste they assumed they were shipping. These data do no necessarily reflect the expectations of the Richland Field Office and they have not been reviewed or approved by the State, the Environmental Protection Agency, or other local stakeholder organizations.

Hanford manages three additional solid low-level mixed waste streams. Vitrified low-level mixed waste will be generated by the high-level waste vitrification process and is costed in the high-level waste section of the report. The Environmental Restoration program will also generate some low-level mixed waste which is costed in that section of the report. Submarine reactor compartments are also received at the site and disposed in unlined trenches. However, they are not included as a part of the Environmental Management program and are not included within the scope of this report.

GENERATION AND HANDLING

A variety of sources generate contact-handled low-level mixed waste. They include laboratories, construction sites, reactor facilities, fuel and waste processing facilities and maintenance and remediation activities. Remediation of the 183H Basin generated the largest volume of this waste. These basins were used for solar evaporation of certain liquids from the N Reactor fuel fabrication activities and include solidified liquids, crystalline solids, and sludge containing salts and some heavy metals. Future retrieval, processing, and other waste management activities will produce larger volumes of waste.

Remote-handled solid low-level mixed waste is mainly generated from deactivation and decontamination of facilities and from high-level waste tank retrieval. Much of this material is currently stored in tanks, and some of the material has not been declared waste, but it is assumed it will become waste.

TREATMENT

The primary options for treating low-level mixed waste will be waste stabilization, to incorporate the waste into a stable form, and thermal destruction. The Department expects to use other techniques such as compaction for volume reduction. Stabilization will allow the waste to be disposed of in accordance with land disposal restrictions. The Department will use thermal destruction for radioactive polychlorinated biphenyl waste. Following thermal treatment, the Department will immobilize the waste in a grout or glass/slag final waste form.

The Richland Operations Office plans to commercialize waste treatment to stabilize low-level mixed waste; the Request for Proposal closed in October 1995. The Richland Operations Office also awarded a commercial thermal waste treatment contract for alpha-contaminated waste regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act. Commercial thermal treatment will begin in FY 2001. Commercial Stabilization treatment is expected to begin in FY 1999.

Currently, there is no capability for processing newly generated remote-handled waste. Negotiations are under way with the State of Washington on how and when to provide this capability. The cost estimate assumes T Plant will be used to process this waste.

The 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility treats liquid waste from the 242A-Evaporator, the K basins, the N basins, and tank waste remediation activities, and purge water from ground-water monitoring activities and secondary waste from solid waste treatment and disposal facilities. 300 Area liquid waste is collected at the 340 Facility and it is then shipped to the tank farms.

STORAGE

Hanford will store contact-handled solid low-level mixed waste in the Central Waste Complex until it can be treated. There are no capabilities to store newly generated remote-handled mixed waste other than to provide proper shielding. However, the estimates assume properly shielded waste packages will be stored in the Central Waste Complex or in the Transuranic Waste Storage and Assay Facility.

Liquid waste from the 300 Area is stored in the 340 Facility in two 57-kiloliter (15,000-gallon) tank cars and then shipped to the double-shell tanks in the 200 Area. The Department has developed a plan to replace this facility, and the baseline report assumes the existing facility in the 340 Facility will close in FY 2002 and future waste from this area will be packaged at the 325 laboratory facility, loaded on a tanker truck, and shipped to the double-shell tanks.

DISPOSAL

Contact-handled solid waste will be disposed of in two Resource Conservation and Recovery Act-approved trenches completed in 1994 and 1995. Remote-handled waste can be disposed of in the same trenches, provided the level of radioactivity does not exceed the design limit of the trench liners. All waste will be properly certified and treated prior to disposition in the trenches. In addition, an unlined trench for the disposal of submarine reactor compartments is operational but is not within the scope of the Environmental Management program, and, therefore, its costs are not included in the estimate. This trench receives approximately 10,000 tons of contact-handled low-level mixed waste per year.

Treated effluent from the 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility will be discharged to a State-approved land disposal site for disposal at a site located north of the 200-West Area. This disposal site consists of an underground drainage field. Discharge limits have been specified by the State of Washington in a discharge permit and by the Environmental Protection Agency in a Delisting Petition which limits the treated effluent discharge to 72 million liters per year (19 million gallons per year). Tritium cannot be removed from the treated effluent but will not be discharged above current limits. The location of the disposal site maximizes the time for migration to the Columbia River to allow for radioactive decay of the tritium.

Low-Level Waste

GENERATION AND HANDLING

Solid low-level radioactive waste has been received from both onsite and offsite waste generators since the mid-1940s. Early waste streams included laboratory and/or construction waste. As reactors and processing facilities came on-line, failed equipment and process waste were added as waste streams. Now, the waste streams consist of materials generated by maintenance and cleanup of the facilities. The waste forms typically are paper, plastic, rubber, wood, glass, dirt, and metal. Approximately 450,000 cubic meters (590,000 cubic yards) of waste from onsite and offsite sources is expected by the end of the life cycle. Liquid low-level waste generated onsite is combined with the low-level mixed waste liquid streams and is treated as mixed waste.

TREATMENT

Most of the solid low-level waste is sent directly to disposal with no treatment required or planned. Facilities at the Hanford Site that generate low-level waste may either compact the waste at their facility or use commercial contractors.

The 2706-T and T Plant (221-T) Facilities provide low-level radioactive decontamination services for the Hanford Site. Among items that are decontaminated are railroad equipment, buses, trucks, automobiles, road-building equipment, tank farm equipment, and plant process equipment. Items are decontaminated either to release them for reuse or to reduce the amount of radioactive materials before disposal.

STORAGE AND DISPOSAL

The solid low-level waste is disposed of in facilities in the 200-East and 200-West Areas. Low-level waste is generally packaged in metal drums and metal and wooden boxes. Sometimes concrete burial vaults and other accepted burial containers are also used. This report assumes the 200 Area disposal facilities will operate indefinitely to dispose of onsite and offsite low-level waste. It also assumes the permitted storage capacity of the facilities will meet the future needs for low-level waste disposal for continuing Waste Management program activities and offsite generators out to FY 2070. This estimate includes costs to FY 2070.

The results of this Baseline Report indicate that approximately 12 sources assume that they will ship low-level waste in the Hanford Site.

The data presented in the following table are based upon data received from generating sites concerning the amount of waste they assumed they were shipping. These data do not necessarily reflect the expectations of the Richland Field Office and they have not been reviewed or approved by the State, Environmental Protection Agency, or other local stakeholder organizations.

State of Washington regulations require environmental monitoring of closed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act disposal sites for 30 years. Environmental monitoring consists of a ground-water monitoring system of 16 wells in the 200-East Area and 19 wells in the 200-West Area. These wells, which were installed in 1987, provide information about background-water quality and the properties of the uppermost aquifer beneath the burial grounds. After 30 years, monitoring requirements will be reassessed.

Hazardous Waste

Hazardous waste is nonradioactive, regulated chemical waste. More than 40 facilities and/or programs generate such waste throughout Hanford. The current estimate for total volume of hazardous waste to FY 2070 is 29,000 cubic meters (38,000 cubic yards). State of Washington Administrative Code Section 173-303 defines dangerous waste. This dangerous waste regulation is more stringent than that required by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and imposes increased compliance requirements.

GENERATION AND HANDLING

A wide range of activities, including construction, laboratory research, facility operation and maintenance, facility cleanup, and site services (such as vehicle maintenance or painting), generate waste. Waste accumulates at various locations and is shipped to interim storage facilities to comply with regulatory guidelines.

STORAGE

The Nonradioactive Dangerous Waste Storage Facility (616) has accumulated and stored some of the nonradioactive dangerous waste generated on the Hanford Site. From this facility, hazardous waste can be shipped to offsite treatment, storage, or disposal facilities with appropriate permits. This facility will be placed in cold standby in 1996 and made available for reuse. Waste generators will then ship directly to commercial treatment facilities. The estimates include fees for these services.

TREATMENT AND DISPOSAL

Offsite commercial treatment facilities will treat and dispose of all hazardous waste from Hanford.

Sanitary Waste

GENERATION AND HANDLING

Most of the liquid sanitary waste regulated by the Clean Water Act results from one-pass heating or cooling of buildings or processes and is essentially clean water. However, some streams contain chemical contaminants or resulted from coolant and condensate from compressed air production, or came from rainwater, boiler discharge, strainer backwash, laboratory wash waters, or air­monitoring systems. These waste streams may contain organics, heavy metals or cyanide. The volume of wastewater is approximately 1.4 million cubic meters/year (approximately 1.8 million cubic yards/year) and is much larger in volume than the solid waste streams, which will be contracted to a commercial garbage hauler. Sanitary waste contains neither radioactive nor hazardous components.

TREATMENT

The 300 Area Treated Effluent Disposal Facility provides treatment for the 300 Area industrial wastewater. After the facility became operational in December 1994, discharge to the process trenches ceased. The treatment process removes heavy metals and mercury and destroys organics and cyanide. Sludge and spent ion exchange resin are generated during the treatment process. The 300 Area Treated Effluent Disposal Facility has a 30­year design life and is scheduled for transition to private operation by FY 2025.

DISPOSAL

The 200 Area Treated Effluent Disposal Facility is a piping network for collecting and disposing of liquid effluents that have been treated at the generation facility to meet discharge requirements. Facilities using the disposal network include the Plutonium Finishing Plant, 222-S Laboratory Complex, T Plant and associated laboratory, the power plant, the Plutonium-Uranium Extraction Plant, and B Plant Waste Encapsulation Storage Facility. The 200 Area Treated Effluent Disposal Facility began operation in 1995 and has a 30­year design life. The treated effluent is disposed of in two two-hectare (5-acre) ponds in the 200-East Area.

The treated liquid effluent from the 300 Area Treated Effluent Disposal Facility is monitored and discharged at up to 1,135 liters/minute (300 gallons/minute) through an outfall to the Columbia River under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. Solid waste generated from the 300 Area Treated Effluent Disposal Facility process is bulk-shipped to the 200 Area low-level waste burial grounds.

The site generated about 31,000 cubic meters (40,610 cubic yards) of solid sanitary waste during 1994. The largest fractions of materials are paper and construction waste. Smaller volumes of wood, asbestos waste, metals, grounds maintenance waste, plastic, textiles, rubber, medical waste, glass, and food have also been collected and disposed. The volume of waste has historically been related to the site population and construction activities; with the reduction in Hanford site staff, some decreases in waste volumes are expected in the future.

The Hanford Landfill has operated for the life of the site but is expected to close during FY 1996, as directed by the Washington State Department of Ecology. The City of Richland Landfill will receive most of the nonradioactive, nonhazardous waste. A site for the disposal of asbestos, medical, and drummed waste has yet to be chosen. The cost estimate for this report does not include the costs for operational management of sanitary solid waste as part of Waste Management costs; instead, these are part of the facility's landlord budget, which is discussed later.

Special Case Waste

Special case waste is waste without a readily identified disposal path. A variety of activities, including research and development, operations of various reactors, processing of spent fuel, and storage of high-level and transuranic waste, have generated special case waste. Site cleanup activities are expected to generate approximately 1,000 cubic meters (1,950 cubic yards) of material. The current projection is that most of the material will be greater-than-class C low-level waste, as well as some transuranic materials whose activity level exceeds the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant acceptance criteria. The waste includes sludges, failed equipment, debris, and particulates. Some of the material is mixed waste and about half of the material requires remote handling. This analysis assumes the waste will be treated in T Plant (along with the other remote-handled material) and then stored in T Plant until FY 2039, when the materials will be shipped to Yucca Mountain for disposal.

Other Materials

Radioactive sodium is the primary nonwaste material at Hanford. Sodium metal has been used as a coolant in the Fast Flux Test Facility and other reactors. It is a pyrophoric material and requires treatment to convert it to a non-pyrophoric material if disposal becomes necessary. However, elemental sodium has multiple uses and has not been determined to be a waste, but is managed as a material.

The Hanford Site radioactive sodium inventory is located in three buildings containing very low levels of radiological contamination. The Sodium Storage Building (2727-W) and the South Alkali Metal Storage Modules near the Central Waste Complex store sodium. The Sodium Storage Building (2727-W) stores five 56,780-liter (15,000-gallon) tanks, and the South Alkali Metal Storage Modules store 158 drums. Commercial processing is planned for the radioactive sodium stored in these locations. A Request for Expression of Interest has been issued to identify potential vendors, but no funding is currently available. Costs for treatment are not a part of Waste Management program activities. The 984, 000 liters (260,000 gallons) of sodium currently in the Fast Flux Test Facility will be stored in the Sodium Storage Facility in the 400 Area. This report assumes, after the treated material is converted to sodium hydroxide, it will be used with commercially procured sodium hydroxide in the high-level waste program to treat the tank waste as a product to adjust the pH and that it will end up in the vitrified low-level waste from the high-level waste program.

Direct Program Management/Support

The primary support programs for waste management include a range of activities needed for regulatory compliance, integration of site activities to eliminate duplications, and planning waste management strategies. These activities include facility surveillance and maintenance; analytical services; environmental monitoring; pollution prevention, and program planning.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY

The overall objective of the program is for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to provide facility surveillance and maintenance activities; reduce safety and environmental risks remaining from past Laboratory research operations; conduct routine operational activities to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements; and conduct cleanup operations to dispose of waste materials.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will continue to support the technology development needs of the Hanford Site through the site's cleanup life cycle and the national need beyond that time. This will require the identified support missions operate through FY 2070. This report assumes the cost of the related support operations will continue at levels similar to those in FY 1996.

The Hanford Mission program provides sitewide environmental monitoring necessary for developing hazard assessments. The program also supports implementation of the Site Ground Water Protection Management Plan. It includes meteorology and climatological services, ecosystem management, and cultural resource management services to carry out the Hanford mission in compliance with regulations. It involves stakeholders and regulators to incorporate public values into the decisionmaking processes.

ANALYTICAL SERVICES PROGRAM

Analytical Services are guided by the overall mission as outlined in the Hanford Mission Plan and by requirements outlined in the Tri-Part Agreement. Hanford Site programs will define analytical services requirements. Analytical Services works directly with program clients to estimate the needed analytical support and to coordinate the use of laboratory services within the Analytical Services program. This includes participation in the data quality objectives process and joint development of the statements of work. Laboratory services include consulting on sampling, field screening, and recommendations on appropriate analyses; conduct of analyses to strict procedure control; data and report preparation; follow-up client assistance; and adherence to strict quality control. Construction of new laboratories, enhancements to existing laboratories, and multiple commercial laboratory contracts are crucial elements of the Analytical Services program, which will provide cost-effective and high-quality analyses to support the needs of each of the Hanford programs now and in the future.

The 222-S Laboratory is the largest laboratory, housed in a 1951 vintage building, with 6,500 square meters (70,000 square feet) containing 11 analytical hot cells and 157 laboratory hoods. It is the primary laboratory used in the analysis of radiological and mixed waste samples on the Hanford Site. The 222-S Laboratory has recently received heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and electrical upgrades to support a 30-year mission.

The Waste Sampling and Characterization Facility is a newly constructed 1,280-square-meter (13,800-square-foot) environmental and industrial hygiene analytical laboratory with 27 individual laboratories. Its primary mission is to support the Effluent Treatment Facility effluent monitoring, industrial hygiene, and radioanalytical chemistry for the Environmental Monitoring Program.

The commercial laboratories augment the laboratory capacity on the Hanford Site to provide support for waste classification and ground-water monitoring. This support will vary as the site sample loads change but is expected to be continually used in the future.

The 1706-KE (Water Studies Semiworks Facility) and 1706-KER (Water Studies Recirculation Building) were constructed beginning in 1954 as a part of the 100-K production reactor complex. The original mission of the facility complex was reactor fuel element, material corrosion, coolant chemistry, and irradiation studies. This facility is expected to begin the transition toward deactivation in FY 1996.

RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY ACT AND OPERATIONAL MONITORING PROGRAM

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Operational Monitoring program is responsible for monitoring and reporting on ground water, air emissions, and surface areas surrounding the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act treatment, storage, and disposal facilities and operating facilities regulated by the Department under the Atomic Energy Act.

HANFORD ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

The Hanford Environmental Management program identifies and resolves site-wide environmental issues, provides guidance to facilities on regulatory compliance, coordinates site-wide report preparation, and integrates Tri-Party Agreement activities. This report assumes activities will continue through 2070.

WASTE MINIMIZATION/POLLUTION PREVENTION PROGRAM

The objectives of the Hanford Site waste minimization/pollution prevention program are to reduce the quantity and toxicity of hazardous, radioactive, mixed, and sanitary waste; to conserve resources; and to prevent or minimize pollutant releases to the environment. Staff seek, identify, screen, and recommend new options for preventing pollution and reducing waste generation. The program saved $75.4 million in FY 1995 by reducing waste loads and associated treatment, storage, and disposal costs. This baseline estimate assumes the program will continue until the end of most waste management activities in FY 2030.

PLANNING AND INTEGRATION PROGRAM

The Planning and Integration program oversees the Hanford Strategic Plan, the Mission Direction document, program baselines, and an integrated site baseline. This report assumes the program will continue at reduced levels until 2070.

WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM MANAGEMENT AND SUPPORT

Waste Management Program Management and Support oversees the management and operating contractors and subcontractors; all federal salaries, benefits, office supplies, and travel; and general services support contractors. While these activities may vary slightly between programs depending on mission, elements typically include program direction and oversight; tasks necessary to plan, control, analyze, and report program performance; preparation of safety analyses, environmental reports, and permits; implementation and maintenance of management systems; and oversight to ensure compliance with requirements. Future program management activities are expected to remain consistent with current practices. This report does not anticipate changes will significantly impact the present program management approach. This report assumes activities will continue at levels consistent with other site activities to FY 2070.

Landlord Section