The Department of Energy still expects to finalize a contract modification this year that will allow the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) to begin treating low-level waste at the Hanford Site near Richland, Wash., by 2022, according to the agency’s top nuclear cleanup official.
“The rebaseline will be done by the end of the fiscal year,” Monica Regalbuto, assistant energy secretary for environmental management, told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Wednesday.
The White House in its fiscal 2017 budget request, released in early February, said it planned to finalize a contract modification with Bechtel National, of San Francisco, by Sept. 30. At an industry-hosted Nuclear Energy Industry reception on Capitol Hill, Regalbuto said DOE planned to hold to that schedule.
A federal judge ordered Bechtel and DOE to have WTP online and treating both high- and low-level Hanford waste by 2036. There are some 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste stored in Hanford’s tank farms.