Technology development at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory high-level waste management history

During WWII and the post-WWII years, until the late 1950`s, plutonium production was Hanford`s primary mission. This mission produced an enormous legacy of wastes that have themselves become the new mission at Hanford. Waste management, as practiced at Hanford, during the defense production years was in many ways unique to Hanford, taking advantage of the dry climate, distance from the Columbia river and depth to the water table. Near-surface storage in tanks, ion exchange in seepage trenches and cribs, and near surface burial were the norm. Isolation of the wastes by the high and dry nature of the 200 Area plateau, where reprocessing and waste management took place, was one of the reasons Hanford had been selected for it`s nuclear mission. Thus, location was a significant aspect of the initial waste management program at Hanford. Treatment, other than simple chemical steps such as neutralization and ion exchange, had not been considered necessary to the mission and was therefore not developed. To support the development of commercial nuclear power and to provide improved means of handling nuclear wastes, new waste management programs were initiated in the 1950`s by the Atomic Energy Commission. The programs focused on high level waste. They includedmore » `spray calcination/vitrification` at Hanford Laboratories. Hanford Labs later became Pacific Northwest Laboratories (PNL) when Battelle Memorial Institute became the Operating Contractor in 1965. In 1996, it was renamed Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The purpose of this paper is to describe the HLW projects and programs that followed from this early HLW R&D at PNNL.« less