The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has scheduled an Aug. 26 hearing in Kennewick, Wash., to consider ongoing efforts to improve the “safety culture” at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP). The hearing will address the Department of Energy’s efforts to address measures included in the DNFSB’s
“Recommendation 2011-Safety Culture at the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant.” Bechtel National’s construction of the facility intended to process 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste stored underground at Hanford has faced a number of challenges over more than a decade, including a spiraling cost projection to $12.3 billion, the anticipated delay in completion to 2019, various technical and design issues, and the dismissal of whistleblower Walter Tamosaitis.
The first of two sessions is scheduled from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. It will feature testimony from high-level DOE officials, the head of the department’s Office of River Protection (ORP), and the federal project director for the plant “regarding the current status of DOE efforts to improve safety culture at WTP,” according to a
Federal Register notice published on Monday. “DOE’s Office of Independent Enterprise Assessment will be given the opportunity to discuss the concerns identified in the WTP independent safety culture assessments,” the notice states. “DOE’s office of Environmental Management and ORP are expected to discuss actions to strengthen and sustain a healthy safety culture at WTP.”
The second session, scheduled from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., will feature testimony from a high-level DNFSB technical worker regarding DOE’s safety-culture improvements and a staff plan for closing out the board’s recommendations regarding plant safety. The meeting is due to wrap up with board consideration of the staff proposal.
