July 14, 2017
News Release

Featured Photo: Trapped for Thousands of Years

Radioactive-Waste-Trapped-as-Glass

Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory mix heated silica sand and chemicals with radioactive waste, a process called vitrification. Once the mixture cools, it can safely trap the waste for thousands of years.

Credit: Andrea Starr / PNNL

The molten glass pictured here is 11 times hotter than boiling water. Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory mix the heated silica sand and chemicals with radioactive waste, a process called vitrification. Once the mixture cools, it can safely trap the waste for thousands of years. The researchers designed this process for radioactive waste currently kept in aging underground tanks at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington.

The glass here shows only a fraction of the technology's potential. Dual melters can pump out 30,000 kilograms of glass in a single day. That's as massive as six elephants.

Learn more about vitrification, and how the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory helps Hanford cleanup, from this column written by Laboratory Director Steven Ashby.

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About PNNL

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory draws on its distinguishing strengths in chemistry, Earth sciences, biology and data science to advance scientific knowledge and address challenges in energy resiliency and national security. Founded in 1965, PNNL is operated by Battelle and supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the DOE Office of Science website. For more information on PNNL, visit PNNL's News Center. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.