March 17, 2014

DOE WARNS MORE WTP MILESTONES MAY NOW BE AT RISK

By ExchangeMonitor

The Department of Energy has warned Washington state and Oregon that an additional set of Hanford Waste Treatment Plant milestones contained in a 2010 Consent Decree may now be at “serious risk” of being missed, a DOE official said late yesterday. The new at-risk milestones include a Dec. 31, 2017, commitment to complete “methods validations” at the WTP’s Analytical Laboratory; a Dec. 31, 2018, commitment to begin “cold commissioning” of the WTP’s Low Activity Waste Facility; and a Dec. 31, 2019, commitment to complete “hot commissioning” of the LAW Facility.

DOE has said that no “significant” technical issues need to be resolved to complete construction of the WTP’s Analytical Laboratory and LAW Facility. However, the latest set of at-risk milestones appear to be tied to the Department’s ability to supply waste to the LAW Facility, which either requires the completion of the WTP’s Pretreatment Facility, which still has technical issues to be resolved; or the establishment of new infrastructure to allow waste to be directly fed to the LAW Facility. “The Department is making these notifications out of an abundance of caution and looks forward to discussing the circumstances with the State as we continue to engage on a path forward,” Erik Olds, chief of staff for DOE’s Office of River Protection, said in a written response.

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