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DNFSB spots possible bottleneck in Hanford’s waste vitrification
Workers change out spent 27,000-pound TSCR filter columns and place them on a nearby storage pad during a planned outage in 2023. (Photo: DOE)
While the Department of Energy recently celebrated the beginning of hot commissioning of the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP), which has begun immobilizing the site’s radioactive tank waste in glass through vitrification, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has reported a possible bottleneck in waste processing. According to the DNFSB, unless current systems run efficiently, the issue could result in the interruption of operations at the WTP’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, where waste vitrification takes place.
During operations, the LAW Facility will process an average of 5,300 gallons of tank waste per day, according to Bechtel, the contractor leading design, construction, and commissioning of the WTP. That waste is piped to the facility after being treated by Hanford’s Tanks Side Cesium Removal (TSCR) system, which filters undissolved solid material and removes cesium from liquid waste.
According to a November 7 activity report by the DNFSB, the TSCR system may not be able to produce waste feed fast enough to keep up with the LAW Facility’s vitrification rate.
2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting Plenary Session Speaker
Dr. John G. Gilligan is Distinguished University Professor of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University and Executive Associate Dean for the College of Engineering (Chief Operating Officer for the College). In addition, Dr. Gilligan serves as the first and only Director of the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) Integration Office for the US Department of Energy since 2008. The NEUP competitively awards contracts to universities to conduct peer-reviewed research in support of the development of commercial nuclear energy. In the most recent year, awards were made at the level of about $60M to over 50 universities and included equipment grants and support for university nuclear reactors and student scholarships and fellowships.
Professor Gilligan has authored over 120 peer reviewed publications in areas such as high power density plasmas and launchers, plasma-material interactions, nuclear systems, nuclear fusion, computational transport methods and engineering education. He has chaired or co-chaired 17 Doctoral committees and many Master’s committees. Dr. Gilligan has edited and published the Nuclear Science and Engineering Education Sourcebook since 1986 on behalf of the American Nuclear Society and the US DOE, and has served on a number of external Boards of Directors including the American Society for Engineering Education, UT-Battelle (Oak Ridge National Lab), Battelle Energy Associates (Idaho National Lab), the National Institute for Aerospace (NIA), and the Research Triangle Institute-International (RTI). He was also the founding Education Director for the US-DOE Nuclear Modeling and Simulation Hub for the Design of Light Water Reactors (CASL). Dr. Gilligan currently serves on advisory boards for Purdue University and the Oak Ridge National Lab.
Professor Gilligan has served on the faculty at the University of Illinois-UC, and held research positions at Princeton University and Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Gilligan has held leadership posts in the American Nuclear Society and the American Society of Engineering Education. He has been awarded the Alcoa Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award and the 2017 ANS Arthur Holly Compton Award. Dr. Gilligan has given numerous invited lectures at universities and conferences.
Professor Gilligan is the former University Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies at NC State University. Previously Dr. Gilligan had served at the Dean level in the 11,000 student NCSU College of Engineering and also as NCSU Interim University Vice Chancellor for Extension and Engagement.
Professor Gilligan earned his B.S. in Engineering Sciences Engineering from Purdue University and his M.N.E and Ph.D. degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Last modified October 20, 2020, 1:58pm EDT
