At the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington, the path to site cleanup involves vitrification of the majority of the wastes that currently reside in large underground tanks. A Joule-heated glass melter is the equipment of choice for vitrifying the high-level fraction of these wastes. Even though this technology has general national and international acceptance, opportunities may exist to improve or change the technology to reduce the enormous cost of accomplishing the mission of site cleanup. Consequently, the U.S. Department of Energy requested the staff of the Tanks Focus Area to review immobilization technologies, waste forms, and modifications to requirements for solidification of the high-level waste fraction at Hanford to determine what aspects could affect cost reductions with reasonable long-term risk. The results of this study are summarized in this report.

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In the continuing effort to support the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), the noble metals issue is addressed. There is an additional concern about the amount of noble metals expected to be present in the future batches that will be considered for vitrification in the DWPF. Several laboratory-as well as melter-scale studies have been completed by various organizations (mainly Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC), and West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) in the US). This letter report presents the status the noble metals issue and focuses on the settling of noble metals and spinels in melters.

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