At our Nuclear Waste Program (NWP), we're focused on overseeing the federal government's cleanup of one of the world's largest and most complex nuclear sites.

We're already looking ahead to a busy 2026, but wanted to look back at some of the remarkable progress we made in 2025!

Some of the accomplishments made last year were the biggest ones we've seen in many years. Did someone say vitrification? Or how about getting ready for one of the largest and most important comment periods in the history of NWP? What about starting to transfer highly radioactive cesium and strontium capsules from underwater to dry storage?

The truth is, 2025 was a BIG year for NWP. We worked alongside our Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) partners at the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and made several historic steps towards our mission to clean up Hanford.

While we've made significant progress, we also recognize the important work that still lies ahead.

A new agreement and turning waste into glass

We kicked off 2025 by finalizing a landmark agreement for managing 56 million gallons of waste stored in 177 underground tanks.

Under this agreement, we remained on track to begin turning tank waste into glass through a process called vitrification. At the same time, we advanced other plans for retrieving, treating, and disposing of tank waste sooner.

The rest of the year was filled with historic firsts in tank waste treatment, including successful environmental testing of the Low-Activity Waste Facility; the first transfer of tank waste from underground tanks to the treatment plant; and the first-ever vitrification of tank waste.

At the end of the year, we saw the first containers filled with vitrified low-activity waste shipped to the onsite permitted landfill, where we'll soon see the first appropriate final disposal of tank waste at the site.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, more than 113 metric tons of glass have been poured, including more than 37,000 gallons of actual tank waste and a total of 26 containers filled. More than 414,513 gallons of secondary waste have been transferred to the site's Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and the Effluent Treatment Facility for treatment.

Moving capsules to dry storage

In another historic first, our Waste Management Section oversaw the transfer of the first radioactive capsules from underwater storage to safer dry storage. Energy began moving these cesium and strontium capsules in early November and has since filled the first concrete cask.

A total of 1,936 capsules have been stored underwater at the Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility for decades. Moving these capsules to dry storage will reduce what is currently one of the largest environmental risks at Hanford.

Protecting soil and groundwater

Our team kept busy over the last year overseeing key work to continue various other cleanup projects across the site.

This work included reviewing more than 30 cleanup documents covering various Waste Management Areas, soil investigations, Remedial Investigation/Feasibility studies, sampling analysis plans, and more.

The team supported Energy's upgrades of the pump-and-treat system; reviewed drilling documents and negotiated a well list; and reviewed sitewide groundwater monitoring reports. To date, Energy has treated more than 35 billion gallons of groundwater!

We also oversaw Energy's successful retrieval of waste from single-shell tank AX-101 and we continue to oversee retrieval work of two other tanks. AX-101 was the 21st single-shell tank to have its waste moved to safer double-shell tank storage, for eventual treatment and disposal.

In the fall, our agency, Energy, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency completed TPA negotiations addressing groundwater, soil, and facilities cleanup. These proposed milestones changes are currently out for public comment.

Other key projects included overseeing Energy moving all waste containers out of an outside storage area and completing cleanup of an interim storage area in Hanford's 400 Area.

Permitting and inspecting it all

To ensure all of this cleanup work follows state and environmental cleanup laws and is protective of human health and the environment, we issue permits to Energy for the treatment, storage, and disposal of waste. Our compliance team conducts regular inspections to ensure these permits are being followed.

To that end, in 2025, our permitting staff approved more than 55 permits or permit modifications, and our compliance team completed 31 inspections at various facilities.

This permitting work included issuing our Air Operating Permit renewal, completing final permits for tank waste vitrification, and much more!

In addition, our team announced public comment period dates for our draft permit renewal that covers 52 waste sites and facilities at Hanford. The draft Hanford Sitewide Permit renewal will be available for a 120-day public comment period beginning June 29 this year. We'll be sharing more information on how to get involved in the coming months.

Finally, we issued a final permit renewal and associated State Environmental Policy Act Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Perma-Fix Northwest. This facility, located in Richland south of Hanford, stores and treats waste from Hanford and other in-state or out-of-state generators.

Keeping the lights on

ALL of the work we do wouldn't be possible without the support of our IT and records staff!

Over the last year alone, these teams formatted more than 2,200 pages for the Hanford Sitewide Permit, more than 770 pages for the current version of the permit. They also formatted more than 1,300 pages for our Air Operating Permit renewal, 60 gigabytes of transitory records, and processed 2,000 help tickets!

Engaging with you

Some of the most important work we do is not within Ecology or at the Hanford Site - it's with you!

Whether it was through a public comment period or public meeting, in a Hanford Advisory Board meeting, at a community event, or somewhere else, we spent a lot of time out in the community talking with the public about Hanford.

Over the last year, we were at 45 outreach events that reached more than 5,000 people. We issued 19 new publications, began a new external newsletter called Cleanup Catchup, and started a new social media account on BlueSky to help reach more members of the community!

We appreciate answering your questions and hearing your perspectives about Hanford! In addition to finding us out in the community or on our socials, we also encourage you to get involved in cleanup decisions or email any questions you have to [email protected].

Finally, we continue to engage with our Congressional Delegation representatives and the federal administration, working to secure sufficient funding for cleanup and keeping Hanford top-of-mind in the other Washington.

As 2026 begins, we look forward to continuing our mission in cleaning up Hanford and building on the successes that marked a historic 2025!