The Department of Energy wants to delay some tank-related nuclear weapons cleanup work at the Hanford Site because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, attendees said this week during an online meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board.
Dealing with the novel coronavirus delayed some projects at the former plutonium production site, the Department of Justice said on behalf of DOE in a May 21 letter to the office of Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson. In the letter, Justice asked to revise a consent decree timeline on Hanford cleanup that was last modified in 2018.
Ferguson’s office agreed in June that some schedule tweaks are merited on tasks like tank farm work and training, but wants to avoid an open-ended extension. The AG’s office said negotiations are needed.
To accommodate the COVID-19-related delays, the state, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and DOE would have to agree on changes to the Tri-Party Agreement that governs Hanford cleanup. Ferguson’s staff essentially prefers to tack some number of days onto the back end of the existing deadlines, accounting roughly for the actual work hours lost to the pandemic.
The state attorney’s general’s office fears that DOE wants the change too loosely-defined. The federal agency’s request to stop the clock until “the date upon which DOE is able to resume normal operations following the work interruptions” is too broadly defined for the state’s comfort, according to the state AG letter.
The consent order itself has been frequently amended over the years, the document sets out timelines on projects such as completion of the Waste Treatment Plant and retirement of single-shell underground tanks.
According to an Aug. 27 update on the federal consent decree work at Hanford between July 1 and July 30, DOE seeks schedule extensions due to force majeure events caused by the pandemic. Force majeure is a legal term referring to unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract.
The 35-page update says DOE and its contractors are doing an ongoing analysis of work schedule impacts from COVID-19.
The impacts tend to fall within three categories: work interrupted or not done due to COVID-19 restrictions; extra work caused by pandemic requirements; and virus-related work inefficiencies related to COVID-19.
Work delayed during the period includes installation and testing of waste retrieval equipment in Tank AX-104. In addition, equipment sitting in the tanks in a radiation field during the COVID-19 delays has resulted in equipment damage. Some tank farm-related chores that traditionally take 25 to 30 workers were limited to 8 workers to meet the physical distance requirements.
Virus-related restrictions mean workers have not been able to attend required training and medical exams. In mid-June, tank contractor Washington River Protection Solutions had over 200 employees delinquent on medical clearances required to conduct fieldwork, at one point.
Then there are quarantine-related headaches. Testing and potential exposures resulted in anywhere 50 to 70 workers at any one time being forced to self-isolate and miss work during July.
