Electrical work still tops a list of construction-related concerns at the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) contractor Bechtel National is building at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a Friday report from the agency’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA).
“Electrical construction weaknesses were identified with completed wiring installations that did not match design drawings, including improper ground wiring and incorrect breaker and wire sizes,” reads the summary of the 16-page report, which was published online late June 17.
EA based the report on field visits to Hanford March 14-17. The latest published survey is part of a larger series of quarterly assessments of construction quality at WTP — which other than the missteps with the electrical portion of the work is “satisfactory,” according to the latest report.
“Six of the 8 areas reviewed were found to be satisfactory, and the Office of Enterprise Assessment issued no findings,” a Bechtel spokesperson wrote in a Friday email. “Two areas needing attention are being corrected and tracked to completion. This assessment is one of many that demonstrates the continued progress Bechtel is making to bring the first phase of WTP on line and begin making glass as soon as 2022.”
DOE halted construction on major portions of the Waste Treatment Plant in 2012 — forcing Bechtel National into a holding pattern at the site, portions of which have been maintained in a partially built state since major construction ground to a halt.
The Waste Treatment Plant is slated to come partially online in 2022 and, per a March 11 federal court order, must be fully operational by 2036. The facility will turn 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste into more easily storable glass cylinders.
The department has planned WTP for decades, and changed the facility’s design multiple times, including since Bechtel National took over as prime contractor in 2000. Bechtel National’s Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant prime contract with DOE’s Office of River Protection is worth more than $11 billion and expires on Aug. 15, 2019.
DOE and Bechtel National are renegotiating the contract, beginning with a modification that will allow low-level waste treatment to start by 2022. Those negotiations are ongoing, a Bechtel spokesperson said earlier this month. Around the time the contract renegotiations are done, DOE will update its now 10 year-old $12 billion cost estimate to build WTP.
