RICHLAND, Wash. – EM’s Office of River Protection’s (ORP) Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) program is moving forward after a mid-December groundbreaking of the Effluent Management Facility (EMF) site at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), and completion of its 30-percent design.

   The EMF will treat liquid effluent from the WTP Low-Activity Waste Facility (LAW), which will be used to begin treating Hanford’s tank waste as soon as 2022.  

   ORP is responsible for management, treatment, and disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of nuclear and chemical waste contained in Hanford’s underground single- and double-shell tanks. The DFLAW program is intended to allow ORP to begin vitrifying these wastes as soon as 2022. In vitrification, radioactive liquid waste is mixed with glass-forming materials, heated to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit, and poured into stainless steel containers, where it cools to a solid glass form that will facilitate long-term storage.

   The EMF will provide four major functions for DFLAW: serve as a low-point drain for waste transfer line flushing; concentrate fluids containing low levels of radioactive material from the low-activity waste off-gas treatment system via an evaporator; transport the condensate from the evaporator to the off-site Effluent Treatment Facility via existing transport piping; and recycle the evaporator concentrate into the low-activity waste vitrification process. 

   When the liquid effluent arrives at the EMF from LAW, it will be routed to an evaporator. The evaporator will concentrate the effluent and remove less contaminated fluids, which are then routed to the Effluent Treatment Facility, located about a mile north of WTP. The remaining, more contaminated concentrate is returned to LAW for vitrification.  

   “The Effluent Management Facility is critical for WTP to support DFLAW,” explained Jason Young, federal project director for the WTP balance of facilities and Analytical Laboratory.   

   Design and construction of the EMF will continue under a “design-build” approach with design reviews at the 60- and 90-percent design marks. Work on getting the facility’s permits from the Washington State Department of Ecology will also start this year.  

   “Right now it’s progressing well,” Young said about the facility. “Construction and design are on schedule, and we are looking for opportunities to improve schedule where possible.”