High-Level Waste Glass App

Located just 300 miles from Corvallis Oregon is the Hanford reservation in southeast Washington state.  On this reservation, some 56 million gallons of radioactive waste are stored in 177 underground tanks.  This waste is in various forms (solid, liquid, salt-cake, and a blend of all of the above).  It is the goal of the US government to safely immobilize this radioactive waste by converting it into a glass form using a process called vitrification.  This capstone project is to take the preliminary code that generates the glass recipe for each batch of waste to be processed, and convert it into a robust, modular piece of software using Python™.  This version of the software that is developed will become the basis for the code that is eventually used to support the 24 hours/day, 7 days/week production at the facility roughly a decade from now.  In addition to generating the glass recipe, this software also produces a chemical and radiological inventory of each canister of glass produced.  This inventory supports the Environmental permitting requirements for disposal of this waste form in a deep, geologic repository.

Objectives

  1. Schedule of the planned software design, development, and testing
  2. Over-arching, software design visual
  3. Annotated software code
  4. Software use instructions
  5. Software test results report
  6. Final versions of the code and the other deliverables above

Motivations

This project does many things.  Although it is just a coding project, this software is the cornerstone of a much larger, more complex, high-level waste compliance strategy. This project impacts both people and the environment.  The developed software will help protect the facility workers, the residents of the nearby cities and towns, the Columbia River, as well as the people and the environment of the communities downstream of the Hanford reservation on the Columbia River.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:
  • Software design experience
  • Software development experience, incl. github flow, pre-commit hooks, linting, formatting, etc.
  • Software testing experience, incl. test-driven development, unit testing, integration testing, and continuous integration/deployment.
  • Proficiency in Python programming, including experience with functions, classes, and basic data structures (e.g., lists, dictionaries).
  • Strong communication skills. 
  • Ability to document code and produce clear, concise technical reports or user manuals.
  • Basic understanding of or interest in environmental science, waste management, or nuclear safety applications.

Preferred Qualifications:
  • Advanced Python experience (packaging and more advanced libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, …), and familiarity with modular software design principles.
  • Background or coursework in statistics, chemistry, nuclear engineering, or materials science.
  • Prior work, internship, or research experience developing production-ready software or working on multidisciplinary projects.
  • Proven ability to produce high-quality, error-free code and documentation suitable for a 24/7 production environment.


Details

Project Partner:

Peter Benson

NDA/IPA:

NDA/IP Required

Number Groups:

1

Project Status:

Accepting Applicants

Website:
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1961645
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTqDBUREVjY
Keywords:
PythonstatisticsConsultancyglassalgorithmchemistrymonte-carloradionuclidesmass balancevitrification
Card Image Capstone