Quality assurance problems continue to afflict the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report Tuesday.
“The project has faced persistent challenges, including quality assurance problems that have delayed it by decades and more than tripled its costs, to nearly $17 billion,” the GAO said in its report summary.
The WTP is a first-of-its-kind facility designed to convert into glass up to 56 million gallons of nuclear and chemical waste stored at Hanford following decades of plutonium production. The National Defense Authorization Act of fiscal 2016 directed the GAO to evaluate the project being led by contractor Bechtel.
The Government Accountability Office said the Energy Department and the contractor need to determine the extent of problems in WTP systems and structures and stop work when problems recur. The government auditor also called for DOE’s Office of River Protection (ORP) at Hanford to review its organizational structure in order to protect the independence of the quality assurance division.
“For example, two of these experts [GAO spoke with] described instances when ORP upper management had downgraded the division’s findings so that the contractor could take less stringent corrective measures,” the GAO said. An improved organizational structure could help ensure that quality doesn’t take a back seat to cost and construction schedules, according to the report.
The report notes ORP has taken actions aimed at improving quality assurance, but these have not always been successful. For example, Bechtel has not fully implemented fixes ORP recommended in 2012 for engineering and construction issues.
The Energy Department largely accepted the GAO’s findings, the report says.
