Fight expected over Hanford money

RICHLAND – New estimates of the money needed to finish a major radioactive-waste cleanup plant at the Hanford nuclear reservation are likely to be so high there will be pressure to pull the plug, the new head of the state Department of Ecology predicts.

The Hanford vitrification plant is expected to cost at least $5.8 billion, and that estimate could increase dramatically.

“Abandoning it or slowing down significantly would be a great mistake,” said Jay Manning, the new Ecology director. “The governor and I will push hard to not let that happen.”

Manning, who was appointed ecology director three months ago by Gov. Christine Gregoire, spent Wednesday and Thursday in the Tri-Cities to tour Hanford, speak at the annual Hanford State of the Site meeting and address the Hanford Advisory Board.

Taxpayers so far have spent $3.3 billion on design and construction of the vitrification plant, which is designed to turn some of Hanford’s worst waste into a stable glass form for permanent disposal. The waste is left over from more than 40 years of producing plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

A new seismic study suggests critical parts of the plant might not withstand a worst-case earthquake. Construction has slowed as calculations are done to see what changes might make the facility more quake-resistant.

The revised cost and budget estimates “are going to be bad,” Manning said. “There’s going to be real pressure to slow down, to rethink the project.”

Construction is about 36 percent complete and engineering is 76 percent complete.

“Without that facility, cleanup will stop,” Manning said. “We need that facility to be built as expeditiously as possible.”

Hanford workers are transferring radioactive and chemical waste from leak-prone single-shell tanks to newer double-shell tanks. All are underground. But the newer double-shell tanks cannot hold all 53 million gallons of waste waiting to be treated.

The double-shell tanks will be full in three years, Manning estimated. Until some of that waste goes to the vitrification plant, no more waste can be removed from the older tanks, some of which date to World War II, he said.

That makes the vitrification plant the most critical cleanup project at Hanford, Manning said.

The U.S. Department of Energy is reviewing an Army Corps of Engineers report on plant costs, said Roy Schepens, manager of the DOE Office of River Protection at Hanford.

The new estimate will be conservative and will include more piping and other materials, the costs of revising the design to meet new earthquake standards and more contingency money, he said.

The state also is concerned about the proposed Hanford budget for fiscal 2006, Manning said. President Bush has proposed cutting $267 million from this year’s budget of just under $2.1 billion.

The U.S. House, persuaded by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., restored about $200 million of those slashed funds. But the Senate bill that the full Senate has yet to consider restores only $34 million. As a conference committee reconciles the difference, state officials will be in Washington, D.C., fighting for the larger amount, Manning said.