Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Tuesday he plans to look into the transfer of the Energy Department project manager for the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP), at the Hanford Site in Washington state, shortly after he raised concerns about missing documentation on steel being used at the facility.
On March 6, then-WTP Federal Project Director William Hamel wrote to the project manager for contractor Bechtel National regarding quality records on structural steel that were “either missing or of indeterminate quality.” He called the situation a “potentially unrecoverable quality issue.” On March 14, DOE announced Hamel had accepted a position as assistant manager for safety and environment at the Hanford Richland Operations Office.
Wyden brought up the timing of the transfer when Energy Secretary Rick Perry appeared before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to discuss the Trump administration’s fiscal 2019 budget request.
“I’d like to believe the best of people, but it’s hard to see that was a coincidence,” Wyden said, adding Hamel’s transfer appeared to be a “whistleblower” situation.
Hamel, however, told Weapons Complex Monitor Morning Briefing late Tuesday he is not a whistleblower. The lateral move to another position at Hanford had been scheduled prior to publication of the letter, Hamel said. The letter was “strongly worded” to get Bechtel to submit additional documents, which is happening, he added.
The Wyden asked Perry to instruct Hamel to write a detailed explanation for the Senate panel about the “potentially devastating” safety documentation issue at the $17 billion plant. Perry agreed, and said he would give Hamel permission to meet with representatives of the Senate panel and answer questions. There was no discussion of timing for this to occur.
On Monday, Hanford Office of River Protection Manager Brian Vance said he did not believe the documentation gaps would imperil the targeted December 2021 operations date for WTP.
Bechtel National is building the Waste Treatment Plant to convert up to 56 million gallons of low-activity and high-level radioactive waste into a glass form for disposal. Under a federal court order, the company must start making glass from low-activity waste by the end of 2023.
Bechtel said recently it has the paperwork to demonstrate the structural steel meets requirements: “We are completing our review of the documentation for a few remaining commercial-grade steel items. The safety and quality of the structural steel was never in question.”
