While changes in a legally-binding consent decree allow the Department of Energy more time to start turning low-level radioactive tank waste into glass at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the agency’s goal is still to start the work by the end of 2023, the top fed at the property said Wednesday.
While DOE has asked a federal court to extend into 2025 the deadline for startup of solidification of liquid waste leftover from plutonium production, “we took that effort just to preserve the department’s legal rights,” DOE Hanford manager Brian Vance told the Hanford Advisory Board.
Bechtel National is building the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant for DOE at the nuclear cleanup site. The Government Accountability Office reported recently availability of replacement parts and other factors could hobble a late 2023 startup.
The DOE wanted to secure more leeway in the consent decree deadline this year, “when frankly the pandemic was still fresh in everyone’s mind,” Vance said during the meeting that was webcast.
“When we talk about how we operate the site … [schedules] have no connection to those consent decree milestones,” Vance said. Just because the milestones change, “does not mean the entire schedule expands to fit the time … We are still working towards the delivery of direct feed low-activity waste commissioning by the end of 2023.”
The request, which is not opposed by the Washington Department of Ecology, was filed Friday June 24 with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. The request builds upon a December 2020 amendment to the Hanford consent decree. The decree agreed coronavirus pandemic constitutes a force majeure, which is a legal term for unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract.
The new request seeks additional time for tank retrieval and Waste Treatment Plant milestones, according to a DOE spokesperson. Tasks needing more time could include retrieval of waste from specified single-shell tanks as well as commencing cold commissioning and completing hot commissioning of the Low Activity Waste Facility.
The extra time is predicated in large part on lost workdays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The arrangement would specify one day is added for each day Hanford is in phase 1 of its remobilization (March 23 to Aug. 30, 2020) and and three-quarters of a day is added for each day Hanford is in phase 2 (Aug. 31, 2020, to March 13, 2022), the DOE spokesperson said this week via email.
Generally, DOE’s pandemic era phases ranged from skeleton staff and maximum telework to the current phase 3 where most people are back onsite save for those that are approved for telecommuting, the agency has said.
Conceivably, hot commissioning of Direct Feed Low Activity Waste plant could stretch to Aug. 1, 2025 from Dec. 31, 2023.
Senior U.S. District Court Rosanna Malouf Peterson could rule on the ruling without hearing oral arguments, according to the latest court filing.