Review of the Continued Analysis of Supplemental Treatment of Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation

The National Academies’ third meeting of the committee conducting the Review of the Continued Analysis of Supplemental Treatment of Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation will convene in 20-21 Oct 2021 and in closed session on 22 Oct.

Section 3125 of the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) calls for a national labs team to develop a framework of decisions to be made among the supplemental treatment technologies, waste forms, and disposal locations for low-activity waste in the Hanford tanks. In addition, Section 3125 requests additional analysis for the grout treatment approach as identified in the previous report for Section 3134 of the FY 2017 NDAA.

As in the previous study, the Academies will convene a committee of experts to provide a concurrent review of the national labs team’s continuing draft and final analytic frameworks.

Description
An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will review the analysis carried out by the Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) selected by the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on approaches for supplemental treatment of low-activity waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The review will evaluate the technical quality and completeness of the following:

Does the FFRDC’s report clearly lay out a framework of decisions to be made among the treatment technologies, waste forms, and disposal locations?
Does the FFRDC’s report consider in its analysis all the elements, criteria, and factors specified in Section 3125 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021?
Does the FFRDC’s report provide additional analysis for the grout treatment approach as identified in the FFRDC report for Section 3134 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017?

The review will be carried out concurrently with the FFRDC’s analysis with opportunities for input from the Washington State Department of Ecology, other principal Hanford stakeholders, and members of the public. The study will produce three consensus reports containing findings and recommendations.

Please visit NASEM’s Review of the Continued Analysis of Supplemental Treatment of Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation page for more information.