A technical review from the Energy Department released Friday found more than 500 design vulnerabilities at a Waste Treatment Plant facility now under construction at the agency’s Hanford Site, according to a pair of newspapers.
The Tri-City Herald and Los Angeles Times reported on the problems, along with a list of 10 corrective actions DOE ordered for WTP prime contractor Bechtel National, in reports released Friday and Saturday, respectively. The deficiencies identify pertain to the plant’s Low-Activity Waste Facility, which DOE and its contractor say can be online by 2020, according to the reports.
The number of design vulnerabilities identified in the final version of the document exceeds by about 150 the number cited by DOE in a draft version of the document the Times obtained in August.
Some of the corrective actions DOE ordered include design changes to portions of the plant already under construction, the Times said. Among these was a call for Bechtel to re-examine a ventilation system in the plant to ensure its can contain radioactive contamination, according to the newspaper.
In a process known as vitrification, the Hanford plant eventually will turn up to 56 million gallons of high- and low-level liquid waste, currently stored underground at the former plutonium production site, into a glass form that is less prone to leaking, as a number of the current underground tanks have done.
According to the Herald, DOE posted the final technical review, and another department-commissioned report about the plant, online Friday. However, DOE’s Hanford.gov website was inaccessible for long stretches over the weekend.
Bechtel National’s Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant prime contract with DOE’s Office of River Protection was awarded in 2000 and is now worth roughly $9.6 billion. The pact expires Aug. 15, 2019. Including other contracts, the Waste Treatment Plant will cost just under $13 million, DOE estimates.
It remains to be seen when the facility will open. DOE and Washington both believe the Low-Activity Waste Facility could open by 2022, with the federal agency saying the full facility will not be fully operational until 2039. DOE and the state are arguing the matter in federal court, with Washington aiming for a 2034 state date for full WTP work.