CHU TO SPEND NEXT WEEK AT HANFORD AS PART OF WTP REVIEW

Energy Secretary Steven Chu is tentatively expected to spend much of next week in the Hanford area, sequestered with a group of hand-picked experts. Chu and his team plan to take a fresh look at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, focusing specifically on its 18 black cells. The plant is planned to have enclosed concrete rooms with tanks and piping that are designed to have no worker access during the 40 years the plant operates because of high levels of radioactivity. The review will look at the plant’s capability to detect equipment failure and to repair failed equipment within the black cells. Changes to the design or operation plan of the plant could be proposed. Chu is not expected to conduct any other business related to Hanford or Pacific Northwest National Laboratory while he is in town. The location where he and his team will work has not been disclosed for security reasons. “I will be receiving input from each of these highly capable experts to help improve our ability to detect and address any potential issues in the black cells that could arise during the course of the Waste Treatment Plant’s operation life,” Chu said in a statement when the members of the new technical review panel were announced at the first of this month.