The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is establishing a new unit that will focus on the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment Plant, Roger Jarrell, senior adviser to the secretary of energy for environmental management, said Tuesday.
Efforts are being made to streamline management decisions at EM, a roughly $6 billion-per-year office that oversees cleanup of DOE’s nuclear legacy, Jarrell said during the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit in Summerlin, Nev.
Jarrell cited the 45-day review of EM operations that is being led by acting Assistant Energy Secretary for EM James Owendoff. More will be revealed on the outcome of the review in the near future, Jarrell said.
The review should enable DOE to better concentrate resources on some of its more complex challenges, Jarrell said.
A new office of special projects is being created within EM, Jarrell said. It will be led by longtime DOE hand Dae Chung, who will focus on the Waste Treatment Plant, Jarrell said. The new office should help get Hanford tank waste treatment up and running, he added.
“This is one of the highest priorities going forward and we want to bring as many resources to bear as possible. We want to beat the deadline,” Jarrell said.
The Waste Treatment Plant is being built at the Hanford Sitein Washington state to treat up to 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste left over from decades of plutonium production for the U.S. nuclear deterrent.
The plant must legally begin treating Hanford’s briny, less-radioactive low-level waste by 2023, though construction prime Bechtel National would forfeit millions of dollars in fees if that treatment does not begin in 2022.
Under a federal court order, full operations of the WTP must begin by the end of 2036.
The key thing “is to start making glass,” Jarrell said. The Waste Treatment Plant will convert the waste into a glass form for storage, a process known as vitrification.
