nuclear-news

Turmoil over Hanford’s huge radioactive wastes, whistleblowers targeted?

the worst of the waste is still decades away from being completely removed. Millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew — enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools — are stored in aging underground tanks. Some of those tanks have leaked, threatening the groundwater and the river.

 Hanford workers filed suit as whistleblowers, claiming they were targeted for reprisals after raising safety concerns. 

New concerns about Northwest nuclear waste plant Google News, By SHANNON DININNY,12 Dec 11 RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — The federal government says a one-of-a-kind plant that will convert radioactive waste into a stable and storable substance that resembles glass will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more and may take longer to build, adding to a string of delays and skyrocketing price tag for the project.

In addition, several workers at southeast Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation have raised concerns about the safety of the plant’s design — and complained they’ve been retaliated against for voicing their issues.

The turmoil has some in the Pacific Northwest uneasy about the plant’s long-term viability and fearful that a frustrated Congress could balk at paying more money for a project long considered the cornerstone of cleanup at the highly contaminated site…..

Roughly one-third of the federal government’s entire budget for nuclear cleanup — about $2 billion each year — goes to Hanford, and nearly a third of that goes to construction of the plant. Last month, U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., demanded that the Energy Department provide an accurate statement of costs and schedule for the facility, and answer questions pertaining to safety complaints……

The federal government created Hanford from a dusty stretch of land at the height of World War II, when thousands moved to the remote area for a top-secret project to build the atomic bomb. A city of thousands was born, and the site went on to produce plutonium for the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan and for the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal throughout the Cold War.

Plutonium production also left behind a slew of waste and debris in trenches, buildings and underground tanks, making Hanford one of the most challenging cleanup projects in the world……

the worst of the waste is still decades away from being completely removed. Millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew — enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools — are stored in aging underground tanks. Some of those tanks have leaked, threatening the groundwater and the river.

The plant is being built to convert much of that waste into glasslike logs — a process called vitrification — for permanent disposal underground. A massive undertaking, the plant will stand 12 stories tall and be the size of four football fields once completed, but technical problems have resulted in multiple delays and cost increases.

The price tag already has grown from $4.3 billion to $12.3 billion. The U.S. Department of Energy, which manages Hanford cleanup, recently announced additional costs of at least $800 million, as well as the possibility of additional delays.

The plant is currently scheduled to begin testing in 2019.

The revelations about higher costs and potential delays came as two Hanford workers filed suit as whistleblowers, claiming they were targeted for reprisals after raising safety concerns. The largest of the safety complaints deal with specifications for the process by which the waste would be mixed. The whistleblowers say, as specified, it could result in dangerous gas concentrations as well as a settling of waste within the mixing vessels.

Those issues largely center on a pretreatment building where the worst waste will be funneled before moving on to other parts of the plant. Any problems there would be significant because workers will not be able to enter certain areas once operations commence because of high levels of radioactivity.

Walt Tamosaitis, one of those whistleblowers, estimates the plant will end up costing taxpayers $20 billion because too many questions remain unanswered about the plant’s overall design. He said his fear is that the plant, even after all that money, will not operate as it should.

“Congress should grab the Energy Department by the ears,” he said. “Change has got to be made so that the plant operates safely and efficiently, which means it completes its mission in 40 years, and the safety culture has to change.”

Tamosaitis called for work to stop on the pretreatment portion of the plant until all of the questions can be resolved…..

Design of the plant is 85 percent complete, and construction is more than 50 percent complete.

A Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board review earlier this year raised concerns about the treatment of employees who raise safety concerns and recommended changes. The Energy Department’s response is due next month.

A more recent report by an independent team of nuclear experts hired by Bechtel found no evidence that the contractor or the Energy Department had suppressed technical dissent by employees…..

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hPVnnxJASmNkC8AQCc3D_Z4HKCmw?docId=1b6ea677e6b9465d8f079347594c723c

December 12, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes