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GAO-23-106880 1 (2023-09-28)

handle is hein.gao/gaopfp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: The Big Picture What GAO's Work Shows The Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for the treatment and disposal of about 54 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous waste stored in tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington State. Before treating this waste, DOE plans to separate it into two streams. The first will be a less radioactive portion, which DOE calls low-activity waste, or LAW, and estimates will comprise about 95 percent of the tank waste volume and 3 percent of the radioactivity. The second will be a more radioactive portion, which DOE calls high-level waste and estimates it will compromise about 5 percent of the tank waste volume and the majority of the radioactivity. As we reported in 2022, DOE estimates that cleaning up the entire Hanford Site will billion and 640billion and take decades. DOE currently plans to use the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) at Hanford to vitrify all of the site's tank waste. Vitrification is a treatment process that will immobilize the waste in glass. The WTP, which has been under construction since 2000, is currently designed to vitrify only about 60 percent of Hanford's LAW once the facility is completed. DOE's cost estimate for completing cleanup of the entire site assumes that the remaining 40 percent of the LAW-known as supplemental LAW'-will also be vitrified. However, DOE has not yet determined how it will treat the supplemental LAW. In contrast, at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, DOE is planning to treat salt waste-which is similar to Hanford's LAW-by immobilizing it in a concrete-like mixture called grout. This approach is significantly cheaper than what is proposed at Hanford. Since 2017, we have found that opportunities exist for Congress and DOE to take steps now that could save money and reduce certain risks posed by Hanford's tank waste. DOE has taken some actions following our recommendations. For example, DOE is testing alternative treatment and disposal options for supplemental LAW. We have identified additional opportunities for DOE to explore cost savings: * Alternatives to Glass. We found in May 2017 that using alternative treatments to vitrification, such as immobilizing the waste in grout, could reduce certain risks by treating the waste faster and could save tens of billions of dollars. The best available information indicates that DOE's estimated costs to grout the salt waste at the Savannah River Site are substantially lower than its estimated costs to vitrify all of the LAW at Hanford (see table). Estimated Cost to Build Facilities and Treat Low-Activity Waste (LAW) and Salt Waste Cost Cost per Cost per Site ($ million) gallon ($) curie ($) Hanford Vitrify approximately 50 million gallons of 70,000 1,400 17,500 LAW containing approximately 4 million curies of radioactivity. Savannah River Grout approximately 36 million gallons of 7,000 200 2,300 salt waste containing approximately 3 million curies of radioactivity. Source: GAO analysis of Department of Energy (DOE) data. I GAO-23-106880 Notes: Estimated costs are rounded and are in fiscal year 2023 dollars based on escalated dollar estimates provided by DOE. Curies are estimates as of 2022. Curies are a measure of the intensity of the amount of radiation released when an element emits energy as a result of radioactive decay. For additional information, see GAO-17.306. GAO-23-106880 Hanford Cleanup

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