DOE-Hanford’s Tank Waste 101 Seminar

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Sahid Smith will deliver the second U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Lecture in partnership with Washington State University (WSU) Tri-Cities. Dr. Smith will focus on radioactive tank waste, which has become the greatest challenge at Hanford. Dr. Sahid Smith joined the U.S. DOE, Office of River Protection, in October 2014. He is currently a member of the Tank Farms Programs Division, functioning as the engineering lead for the Low-Activity Waste Pretreatment System Project. Dr. Smith began his DOE career at the Richland Operations Office in 2007 as a general engineer, where he worked as a project engineer on the K-Basin Closure Project (primarily focused on the Sludge Treatment Project), leading and participating in design reviews and assessments. He completed several rotational assignments in the Environmental Management Professional Development Corps Program in 2008 including assignments at the Oak Ridge Operation Office and Environmental Management Headquarters. Dr. Smith holds a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in chemical engineering from Florida A&M University. Dr. Smith’s lecture will cover how the single and double-shell radioactive waste tanks were constructed, and the complex combination of 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste taking the physical form of sludges, salts, and liquids with varying combinations of chemical properties. He will also discuss the ongoing challenges of treating and immobilizing the tank waste through vitrifying the waste into a solid glass form for permanent disposal.