nuclear-news

12 $billion new Hanford nuclear waste facility has safety flaws

Safety at Wash. Nuclear-Waste Site Scrutinized, SciTech Today, By Peter Eisler January 27,  A new plant meant to stabilize and contain 56 million gallons of radioactive waste is coming under fire by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. A chief concern is that abrasive and corrosive particles in the waste could erode pipes and mixing vessels used to pretreat the material for vitrification, ultimately causing leaks. A federal oversight panel is raising new concerns to the Department of Energy about potentially serious flaws in the design of a first-of-its-kind, $12 billion waste treatment plant that is being built for the nation’s largest radioactive cleanup.
The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board wants more tests and
analyses to validate the designs for key components of the plant,
which is meant to stabilize and contain 56 million gallons of
radioactive waste at the Hanford Site, a former nuclear weapons
production complex in Washington state. The concern is that the
components could fail, crippling the plant long before its 30-year
mission is done.
The warning adds hurdles to the government’s 20-year effort to clean
up the waste, which threatens to pollute the Columbia River, a major
water supply in the Pacific Northwest.

The board’s recommendations, outlined in a Jan. 20 letter to Energy
officials, echo those of senior project scientists who warned about
problems with the plant’s design in a USA TODAY report last week.
Lawmakers vowed to examine the design issues, as well as cost overruns
and schedule delays the newspaper documented.

“I have serious ongoing concerns about the safety culture the
technology, and the schedule the (Energy) Department is pursuing at
Hanford, in addition to spiraling costs,” said Rep. Rodney
Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., who chairs the House subcommittee that controls
Energy spending. “The Hanford cleanup will be explored during our
upcoming budget hearings.”….
The waste at Hanford, stored in 177 deteriorating underground tanks,
was left by 45 years of plutonium production at the site, where
scientists helped build the nation’s first atomic bombs during World
War II. The treatment plant will blend the waste into a molten glass
— a process called vitrification — and inject it in steel canisters
to solidify. Once running, the plant should take about 30 years to
finish its work, producing tens of thousands of glass-filled
canisters.

The treatment plant is more than half-built; start-up has been pushed
back from 2011 to 2019…..
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Nuclear-Waste-Site-Scrutinized/story.xhtml?story_id=123006WC6OSO

January 28, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, wastes