world's largest radioactive waste incinerator

The US's largest radioactive waste incinerator reached its expected operating temperature of 1,150 degrees Celsius during its second test run.

Workers at Hanford stand near the first smelting chamber. Photo: Yahoo. — Workers at Hanford stand near the first smelting chamber. Photo: *Yahoo.*

The first meltdown furnace used to process waste at the vitrification plant at the Hanford nuclear complex in eastern Washington is expected to maintain that temperature for several days. Afterward, frosted glass will be added as the next step in the meltdown testing process. According to Ed Dawson, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy, completing the preheating of the first meltdown furnace is a crucial step in waste processing at Hanford, Yahoo reported on July 25.

The melting furnace will operate continuously for five years. Construction of the vitrification plant began 21 years ago. According to plan, the plant will begin processing the least radioactive waste in an underground storage tank at Hanford by the end of 2024 or 2025, transforming it into a stable, disposable glass form.

The underground tanks at Hanford contain 212 million liters of radioactive and toxic chemical waste from the production of nearly two-thirds of the plutonium used in the U.S. nuclear weapons program during World War II and the Cold War. Bechtel National, the contractor that built and delivered the vitrification plant to the U.S. Department of Energy, sought to heat the plant's first 300-ton melt furnace on October 8, 2022.

However, the heating process had to be halted after midnight on October 10, 2022, with the temperature reaching nearly 150 degrees Celsius, due to a problem with the power supply to the furnace's starter heating element. Engineers had to review the entire system to understand the cause of the problem, meticulously inspect all the furnace's components, and redesign some parts. They also purchased, tested, and installed several new pieces of equipment. A second test began, and the furnace reached a temperature of 1,150 degrees Celsius on the afternoon of July 20.

After adding frosted glass to the melting furnace, a second heating unit, replacing the initial one, is switched on. This will conduct electricity through the melting glass bath. Then, an aerator is installed, blowing air into the bottom of the furnace's glass bath, preventing hot spots from forming. The melting furnace measures 6 x 9 meters and is 4.6 meters high, five times larger than the melting furnace currently operating at the DOE's Savannah River Waste Treatment Facility in South Carolina.

The heating test will help prepare for the next step in the handover process, which is testing the meltdown furnace, using non-radioactive materials to simulate the waste. A federal court has given the DOE a deadline to begin vitrating the highly radioactive waste by 2033.

An Khang (According to Yahoo )

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