Progress toward Moving Highly Radioactive Capsules on the Hanford Site to Dry Storage - 21342

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) are making progress toward moving 1,936 highly radioactive cesium and strontium capsules from underwater storage inside the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility (WESF) to a safer dry storage configuration. Continued operation of WESF for an extended period will result in increased costs as the equipment continues to age and becomes more difficult to maintain. This project will save more than $6 million per year. The capsules represent about one-third of the total radioactivity on the Hanford Site. While the capsules are currently in a safe configuration, WESF is an aging facility and is becoming more expensive and difficult to operate and maintain. Transferring the capsules to dry storage would eliminate the possibility of a release of radioactive material in the unlikely event of a major earthquake that might result in the loss of pool storage water and subsequent overheating and breach of the capsules. As part of the Management of the Cesium and Strontium Capsules (MCSC) Project, WESF will be modified for the safe removal of the capsules. The capsules will be placed into a Cask Storage System (CSS) and then moved to a Capsule Storage Area (CSA) being built near WESF. A full-scale mockup of the capsule removal system is being built at the Maintenance and Storage Facility (MASF) that will replicate the WESF G-Cell, canyon, and truck port, and will be used for testing, training, and procedure development. Work is currently underway on all aspects of the project, including equipment fabrication, design of modifications to WESF to support equipment installation, WESF construction preparations, CSA construction, and mockup construction. This paper describes the strategy and progress to date to reduce one of the largest radiological risks on the Hanford Site. (authors)