While changes in a legally-binding consent decree allow the Department of Energy more time to start turning low-level radioactive tank waste into glass at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the agency’s goal is still to start the work by the end of 2023, the top fed at the property said Wednesday.
While DOE has asked a federal court to extend into 2025 the deadline for startup of solidification of liquid waste leftover from plutonium production, “we took that effort just to preserve the department’s legal rights,” DOE Hanford manager Brian Vance told the Hanford Advisory Board.
The DOE wanted to secure more leeway in the consent decree deadline this year, “when frankly the pandemic was still fresh in everyone’s mind,” Vance said during the meeting that was webcast.
“When we talk about how we operate the site … [schedules] have no connection to those consent decree milestones,” Vance said. Just because the milestones change, “does not mean the entire schedule expands to fit the time … We are still working towards the delivery of direct feed low-activity waste commissioning by the end of 2023.”
The request, which is not opposed by the Washington Department of Ecology, was filed Friday June 24 with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. It is predicated in large part on lost workdays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conceivably, hot commissioning of Direct Feed Low Activity Waste plant could stretch to Aug. 1, 2025 from Dec. 31, 2023.
