…The report said its findings mirror quality-assurance problems found in two previous audits of the vitrification plant….

Design changes at a new radioactive waste disposal plant at the country’s most contaminated nuclear site in south-central Washington were not properly verified to ensure safety, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Inspector General concluded in a report issued Thursday.

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS

Associated Press

Design changes at a new radioactive waste disposal plant at the country’s most contaminated nuclear site in south-central Washington were not properly verified to ensure safety, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Inspector General concluded in a report issued Thursday.

The audit was highly critical of the design change process at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation’s $12.2 billion vitrification plant, considered the cornerstone of cleanup at the site. The one-of-a-kind plant is designed to convert about 56 million gallons of dangerous radioactive waste into a glasslike substance for eventual burial.

The audit said contractor Bechtel National Inc. was required to ensure the vitrification process is safe for workers, the public and the environment, but failed to do that in the design change process.

Hanford was created by the Manhattan Project during World War II in the race to build an atomic bomb. The sprawling complex near Washington’s Tri-Cities of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco is involved in a multi-decade cleanup program that already has cost more than $40 billion.

The inspector general’s office said it launched an investigation after receiving a complaint that Bechtel was missing design control documentation on the plant and could not demonstrate that some equipment was properly manufactured.

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