The Government Accountability Office said Tuesday the Energy Department should use best practices when seeking alternatives to the Pretreatment Facility for the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The Pretreatment Facility is intended to separate radioactive waste into high-level and low-level streams before processing at the Waste Treatment Plant, the GAO noted in a report. In 2012, having already spent $3.8 billion, the DOE Office of Environmental Management suspended construction due to technical challenges.
Between fiscal 2013 and 2018, the agency spent $752 million on the Pretreatment Facility. About half was used for overhead, oversight, procurements, and upkeep, with the rest spent on technical problems. Construction of the Pretreatment Facility remains on hold, although maintenance continues.
The Office of Environmental Management in 2019 began an analysis of alternatives for treating Hanford’s high-level waste, with the document expected in September. One of the front-burner options is tank-side cesium removal of the material.
The Government Accountability Office made two recommendations in the report, saying the alternatives analysis for pretreatment of high-level waste should include 1) a mission need statement and 2) a life-cycle cost estimate for the baseline scenario.
By the end of 2023, the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment Plant is supposed to start converting low-level radioactive waste to a glass-like substance for disposal. A legal consent decree requires construction of the Pretreatment Facility by to be finished by 2031; full operation of the WTP, including vitrification of both the high-level and low-level wastes, should start by 2036.
Energy Department Senior Advisor for Environmental Management William (Ike) White said, in comments included in the report, that his office is moving forward on the recommended analysis.
Government managers need analyses of this type to make the best decisions for pretreating high-level waste at the Waste Treatment Plant, the GAO said in the report. Construction of the entire waste vitrification plant began in 2000 and has already cost in excess of $11 billion.
