NNSA Pushing Back Construction Start for RLWTF Upgrade Project
WC Monitor
8/1/2014
The National Nuclear Security Administration is pushing back the planned start of construction of a new low-level liquid waste treatment facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory based on the results of a peer review that the NNSA is so far declining to discuss publicly. While the NNSA had previously planned to begin the construction of the facility in the third quarter of this year, it is now looking to obtain approval to begin construction by the end of this year, according to agency spokesman Derrick Robinson. “NNSA has modeled a peer review process for capital projects that mirrors (to the extent practicable) the process utilized within the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Each active capital project is reviewed at least annually (more often for larger projects) to ascertain that the project will meet the established cost, schedule, and scope. NNSA recently completed a peer review for the RLWTF LLW project, and the project team is in the process of addressing findings from the peer review,” Robinson said in a written response this week, adding, “Upon completion of the findings, LLW team will request CD-3 approval (start of construction) by the end of the year.”
Robinson declined to comment, though, as to what the peer review specifically examined or what its findings are, saying, “The Peer Review report is not finalized therefore we cannot provide more information on the results and what specifically the review examined.”
The new low-level liquid waste facility is one of two NNSA is planning to build at Los Alamos to replace the lab’s existing Radioactive Liquid Waste Treatment Facility, which is an aging facility with a history of leaks that led to concerns that ongoing operations could be threatened due to a lack of an adequate waste processing ability. Along with the new low-level waste facility, NNSA is also planning to build a new facility to process liquid transuranic waste. The low-level waste facility has been scheduled to be completed by early 2018, with the transuranic waste facility to be completed in 2020.
