The Department of Energy later this month will lift the curtain a little on its plans for temporarily storing 35 cubic yards of radioactive sludge at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., before disposing of the material permanently.
The changes will be detailed in an official document known as an Explanation of Significant Difference for the K Basins Interim Remedial Action Record of Decision, which DOE plans to release for public comment later this month, the agency wrote in a Monday email blast.
The Explanation of Significant Difference “will also note that treatment technologies need to be selected, and a suitable facility needs to be found or built to handle the sludge,” DOE stated.
While the document does not propose changes to the overall sludge-treatment strategy — essentially, moving the material away from the Columbia River until it can be treated and made safe for permanent disposal at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M. — it will discuss “the length of time K Basins sludge will be stored prior to treatment, as well as identification of potential storage placement on the Hanford site, such as T Plant,” the agency wrote.
The Hanford sludge is now stored in underwater containers in the K-West Basin about 400 yards from the Columbia River. DOE blew a 2014 deadline to start sludge cleanup there and now looks to be cutting it close to begin construction of the temporary storage site by 2018, the new start date the department settled on with Washington state last year. In 2014, DOE thought the cleanup would cost about $310 million. A new cost estimate is underway and will be complete after an external review of the program slated for this year, according to the fiscal 2017 DOE budget request the White House released in February.
The sludge was created by the decay of irradiated fuel rods that were slated to be harvested for plutonium until the federal government pulled the plug on Hanford plutonium production in the 1980s, with the Cold War winding down.
Construction quality at the long-delayed Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) Bechtel National of San Francisco is building at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state is generally satisfactory, but “significant challenges” remain with regard to addressing deficiencies already discovered at the former plutonium production site, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments stated in a report published Thursday.
The DOE office said Bechtel National still has not finished processing 540 nonconformance reports, and that some 660 construction deficiencies remain to be addressed at the site. The office also reiterated old concerns about a potential conflict of interest at the site, where Bechtel both procures electrical equipment and certifies this equipment is safe to use.
But despite the old concerns that remain and a construction misstep caught during a brief site visit the EA made from Dec. 14-17, 2015, the report contained no formal findings and identified no opportunities for improvement.
EA witnessed three construction procedures during the brief visit and found only one infraction amid them: a worker welding metal with wood close by. The company’s permit stipulated that with wood so close to a welder, the company should have posted a fire watch — essentially, another worker to make sure nothing catches fire. None was present, however, and a form documenting the welding work indicated, apparently incorrectly, that no fire watch was required.
The Waste Treatment Plant is slated to come partially online in 2022 and, per a March 11 federal court order, must be fully operational by 2036. The facility will turn 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste into more easily storable glass cylinders.
In late April, DOE’s top cleanup official, Monica Regalbuto, told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing the agency and Bechtel National were close to finalizing a contract modification that will allow the company to proceed with tweaks that will allow the facility to treat low-level waste only beginning in 2022. The modification is expected later this calendar year, Regalbuto said. Once that happens, an update of DOE’s now 10 year-old cost estimate for the facility will follow. DOE estimated in 2006 WTP would cost over $12 billion to build.
The department has planned WTP for decades, and changed the facility’s design multiple times, including since Bechtel National took over as prime contractor in 2000.
