The Energy Department expects to start vitrifying low-activity radioactive waste at the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) as early as fiscal 2022 or as late as fiscal 2024.

“We are going to have hiccups. … We are going to have failures along the way,” but they can be overcome, Tom Fletcher, DOE’s assistant manager for the waste plant said during a Wednesday presentation to the Hanford Advisory Board in Richland, Wash.

Audio of the meeting was available over the Internet and some advisory board members were skeptical of DOE’s confidence, saying the plant has seen many schedule delays over the years.

Fletcher said WTP is a top priority for the DOE Office of Environmental Management, adding the cleanup office’s senior adviser, William (Ike) White.

Federal fiscal years begin Oct. 1 and Bechtel, which is building WTP, is supposed to start direct feed of low-activity tank waste operations by December 2023, under a federal court consent order.

In December 2000 Bechtel started work on a $14.7 billion contract to build the plant to convert much of the 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste from Hanford’s underground tanks to a stable glass form for disposal. The current timeline envisions “cold commissioning” of WTP with simulated tank waste in fiscal 2022. That would be followed by the final “hot commissioning” using actual tank waste in fiscal 2023.

By fiscal 2024, the DOE expects WTP operations will ramp up to 21 metric tons of glass per day, which would be taken to the Integrated Disposal Facility landfill within the former plutonium manufacturing site.

Once it starts up the vitrification plant at Hanford will basically run around-the-clock, DOE officials told the advisory board. The timeline is based upon annual Hanford Site funding of about $2.5 billion – somewhat higher than the $2.4 billion enacted budget level for fiscal 2019 — and timely approval of all necessary permits.