Preview: Multipart Hanford Liquid Waste Panel Kicks Off Today

The first of a four-part, deep-dive progress report on the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) under construction at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site kicks off at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and features a panel of senior government officials and industry executives.

The panel, titled “DOE Hanford – Direct Feed Low Activity Waste (DFLAW) Update – Part 1 of 4,” will be held in Room 105AB. It is the first of four scheduled that day to discuss liquid waste cleanup at one of the most highly contaminated sites in the entire DOE weapons complex. Scheduled panelists for the first session are: Briant Charboneau, Federal Project Director for DOE’s Office of River Protection; Thomas Fletcher, DOE’s Tank Farms Project Manager; William Hamel, DOE’s WTP Assistant Manager; Margaret McCullough, Project Director for WTP contractor Bechtel National; and William Condon, One System Manager for Washington River Protection Solutions.

The panel will focus on DOE’s plan for beginning low-level, liquid-waste treatment at Hanford by 2022 using the so-called direct feed low-activity waste method: a modification to the original WTP design that would allow DOE and its contractors to leapfrog some technical challenges associated with treating high-activity liquid waste by treating relatively less-noxious waste alone. DOE and Washington state are arguing the start-up date for high-level waste treatment in federal court. DOE proposed a 2039 start date, while Washington state proposed a 2034 start date.