Hanford waste treatment pipes not inspected
YAKIMA – About 1,800 sections of pipe for a massive waste treatment plant at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site were not subjected to required quality inspections, and a U.S. senator called for a full explanation Tuesday by the government agency overseeing the project.
None of the pipe was permanently installed in the Hanford Nuclear Reservation plant under construction in south-central Washington. Bechtel National Inc., the company hired to build it, also said its workers identified the problem themselves and are taking steps to prevent a recurrence.
The controversy involving procurement of construction materials for the so-called vitrification plant isn’t new. The plant is being built to encase millions of gallons of radioactive and toxic waste – the remnants of Cold War-era plutonium production for the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal – in glasslike logs for permanent disposal underground.
Last fall, the U.S. Department of Energy fined Bechtel $165,000, in part for failing to ensure vendor-supplied equipment met nuclear safety specifications.
The failure to adequately inspect the pipe sections was not part of that fine, although inconsistencies with pipe inspections were first noticed in 2006. The pipe was to be installed in “black cells” that will be so radioactive after the plant begins operating that workers will no longer be able to enter.
“These are sections of the plant where the most dangerous waste is going to be routed, but once you’ve done it, nobody ever gets access to it,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want to see the black cells just head off into this black hole of procurement, where there’s no accountability and there isn’t adequate oversight.”
In a letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, Wyden requested an explanation of the cause of the problems and assurance that steps are being taken to address the larger issue of inadequate construction management.
The Energy Department did not immediately comment on the letter.
Construction codes require that 5 percent of piping on a project be inspected. The Energy Department required 100 percent inspection of all components going into the black cells, said Drew Slaton, Bechtel’s communications manager.
A fabricator only performed 5 percent inspection on 1,801 sections of pipe destined for that part of the plant. None was permanently installed in the building, and most were drain pipes that will not carry waste or be subject to high pressure or high temperatures, he said.
Slaton also said Bechtel’s system for catching potential problems identified the error and steps have been taken to correct it and prevent a recurrence.
“We’re actually quite proud of our depth. We have all these catches in place so we catch problems, and it worked. We identified this issue, our systems caught it, and we’re taking steps to correct it,” he said.