Start date: 2018 | Completion: 2019
In order to accelerate tank closure at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, the highly radioactive element cesium needed to be removed from the site’s Cold War legacy salt waste.
Westinghouse designed, built and tested the innovative technology of Tank Closure Cesium Removal system, a supplemental at-tank process that uses an ion exchange process with a self-shielded, self-contained column. The waste from Tank 10 passes through the modules, including a pre-filter and multiple ion exchange columns. An engineered resin inside the ion exchange column treats the waste stream to remove the cesium. The cesium-rich resin then goes to an interim on-site safe storage area for future disposal.
Westinghouse leveraged its long history of processing nuclear waste, including its work as one of the first companies to assist in accident recovery at the nuclear site in Fukushima, Japan.
