12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Notable
Fully implement the High-Level Waste determination across the DOE complex
Printed page 395 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions
“Fully implement High-Level Waste determination. Fully adopting the High-Level Waste (HLW) determination across the DOE complex, particularly at Hanford, would allow LLW to be grouted rather than vitrified.”
What has happened
- Partially done
DOE is implementing the High-Level Waste interpretation where it matters most. EM adopted a dual glass-plus-grout strategy and on 10 August 2026 submitted two permit modification requests to Washington State Ecology that would let tank-side treated low-activity waste from tank AP-106, stripped of more than 99.9 percent of its radioactivity, be grouted and shipped out of state instead of vitrified. Partial rather than done: the requests are pending with the state regulator, the Waste Treatment Plant is still to be fed first, and no complex-wide adoption of the determination was announced.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
The Quote’s point is that fully adopting the HLW determination would let low-level waste be grouted rather than vitrified, particularly at Hanford. That is exactly the dual-path strategy. The Savannah River Site already treats similar waste this way and has treated 13 million gallons to date, which is the precedent EM cites.
The 2019 DOE HLW interpretation itself predates the evidence window; what is dated here is its implementation at Hanford inside the window.
- Action
- other
- Object
- High-Level Waste (HLW) determination
- ID
- 1000