2019 Year in Review Report Cover

2019 Year in Review Highlights

  • Issuing the Department’s interpretation of the term “high-level radioactive waste,” which could offer more options to address tank waste, one of the department’s largest environmental challenges.
  • Awarding the first “end-state”-focused contract at Hanford, which defines work in segments easier to track and accomplish, and concentrates effort on mission completion. 
  • Completing the transfer of K-Basin radioactive sludge at Hanford to safer on-site storage away from the Columbia River. 
  • Successfully completing an 11-year demonstration of interim salt waste processing capability at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
  • Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, which also marked receipt of the 12,500th shipment of transuranic waste for disposal at the New Mexico site. 
  • Completing the waste treatment mission at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project at the Idaho cleanup site 
  • Marking 10 years of operation and reaching the milestone of shipping 10 million tons (out of 16 million tons) of waste from the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings (UMTRA) site and away from the Colorado River in Utah. 
  • Completing field work and site restoration at the Separations Process Research Unit (SPRU) in New York State.