RIVER PROTECTION PROJECT SYSTEM PLAN

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of River Protection (ORP) manages the River Protection Project (RPP). The RPP mission is to retrieve and treat Hanford's tank waste and close the tank farms to protect the Columbia River. As a result, the ORP is responsible for the retrieval, treatment, and disposal of the approximately 57 million gallons of radioactive waste contained in the Hanford Site waste tanks and closure of all the tanks and associated facilities. The previous revision of the System Plan was issued in September 2003. ORP has approved a number of changes to the tank waste treatment strategy and plans since the last revision of this document, and additional changes are under consideration. The ORP has established contracts to implement this strategy to establish a basic capability to complete the overall mission. The current strategy for completion of the mission uses a number of interrelated activities. The ORP will reduce risk to the environment posed by tank wastes by: (1) Retrieving the waste from the single-shell tanks (SST) to double-shell tanks (DST) for treatment and disposal; (2) Constructing and operating the WTP, which will safely treat all of the high-level waste (HLW) and about half of the low-activity waste (LAW) contained in the tank farms, and maximizing its capability and capacity; (3) Developing and deploying supplemental treatment capability or a second WTP LAW Facility that can safely treat about half of the LAW contained in the tank farms; (4) Developing and deploying treatment and packaging capability for transuranic (TRU) tank waste for shipment to and disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP); (5) Deploying interim storage capacity for the immobilized HLW and shipping that waste to Yucca Mountain for disposal; (6) Operating the Integrated Disposal Facility for the disposal of immobilized LAW, along with the associated secondary waste, (7) Closing the SST and DST tank farms, ancillary facilities, and al1 waste management and treatment facilities, (8) Developing and implementing technical solutions to mitigate the impact from substantial1y increased estimates of Na added during the pretreatment of the tank waste solids, This involves a combination of: (1) refining or modifying the flowsheet to reduce the required amount of additional sodium, (2) increasing the overall LAW vitrification capacity, (3) increasing the incorporation of sodium into the LAW glass, or (4) accepting an increase in mission duration, ORP has made and continues to make modifications to the WTP contract as needed to improve projected plant performance and address known or emerging risks, Key elements of the implementation of this strategy are included within the scope of the Tank Operations Contract, currently in procurement Since 2003, the ORP has conducted over 30 design oversight assessments of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The estimated cost at completion has increased and the schedule for construction and commissioning of the WTP has extended, The DOE, Office of Environmental Management (EM), sanctioned a comprehensive review of the WTP flowsheet, focusing on throughput. In 2005, the TFC completed interim stabilization of the SSTs and as of March 2007, has completed the retrieval of seven selected SSTs. Demonstration of supplemental treatment technologies continues. The ongoing tank waste retrieval experience, progress with supplemental treatment technologies, and changes in WTP schedule led to the FY 2007 TFC baseline submittal in November 2006. The TFC baseline submittal was developed before the WTP schedule was fully understood and approved by ORP, and therefore reflects an earlier start date for the WTP facilities. This System Plan is aligned with the current WTP schedule with hot commissioning beginning in 2018 and full operations beginning in 2019. Major decisions regarding the use of supplemental treatment and the associated technology, the ultimate needed capacity, and its relationship to the WTP have not yet been finalized. This System Plan assumes that the outcome of this decision will be to provide a supplemental LAW treatment system using in-container vitrification (ICV{trademark}) as the enabling technology. No final implementation decisions regarding supplemental technology can be made until the Tank Closure and Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement is completed and a Record of Decision is issued by the DOE