The Department of Energy’s Hanford Site could still use the help of a mediator to resolve its differences with the Washington state Department of Ecology over contaminated soil at the Hanford Site, a congressional watchdog agency said this week.
The so-called holistic agreement that DOE, the state and the Environmental Protection Agency reached on Hanford tank waste does not include contaminated soil, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said this week. The parties need “a process for assessing the contaminated soil and what role the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should play,” GAO said.
The suggestion was part of a survey GAO published this week to update the public about recommendations that it has issued to DOE in recent years and which the agency has yet to resolve. GAO called for contaminated soil negotiations in January 2021.
Also, GAO said DOE’s Office of Environmental Management still must add mission need and life-cycle cost estimates to its alternatives analysis for pretreatment of high-level waste at Hanford’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. GAO made the recommendation in May 2020.
In another Waste Treatment Plant issue, GAO said in June 2022 that the Environmental Management office needs to reach a contract extension with construction prime Bechtel National.
The June 2022 report also said DOE should work with Bechtel to iron out any quirks with the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Facilities by the end of hot commissioning, now expected around August 2025.
Bechtel’s current $15.5-billion contract started in December 2000 and will expire Sept. 30.
“As of May 2024, DOE had not finalized a contract extension” with Bechtel, GAO said in the open items report. GAO wants DOE to take steps to help “ensure that the costs of addressing existing challenges and problems do not fall to DOE.”
A year ago, GAO tasked the Office of Environmental Management to develop guidance for “risk-informed decision-making” in remediation of Cold War and Manhattan Project sites. DOE expects the implementation plan to be completed by Sept. 30, GAO said in the update.