RICHLAND -- The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board plans to visit the Tri-Cities in October for two days of hearings focused on the safety of design and construction of the Hanford vitrification plant.
The Department of Energy and its contractor Bechtel National are working to finalize design of the $12.3 billion plant that is expected to begin operating in 2019. Construction began while design work continued to allow the plant to begin treating waste as soon as possible.
Design of the plant is 80 percent complete and construction is 52 percent complete.
"It seemed like an opportune time to come out and review the design and construction of the Waste Treatment Plant," said Peter Winokur, chairman of the safety board. "We want to integrate safety as soon as possible into the design."
The board will be looking at issues which it previously raised concerns about, including safety component classification and changes in the design strategy to address a possible buildup of hydrogen in pipes and ancillary vessels.
It also will be looking at the pulse jet mixing system. The system is supposed to keep high-level radioactive waste well-mixed in some tanks inside the plant without using moving parts that would require maintenance in highly radioactive areas. It will use air to pull and push waste through nozzles inside the tanks to keep the waste mixed.
The safety board said earlier this year that it was concerned that inadequate mixing could cause a nuclear criticality or a buildup of flammable gas that could cause an explosion, and DOE has been working on remedies.
Supplemental strategies to address possible buildup of heavy particles in some tanks are being considered. They include using cameras inside the tanks to check for buildup and additional methods to remove buildup.
The hearing had been scheduled earlier in the fall, but the safety board postponed it until October to allow DOE to complete more work on technical issues.
The board will send DOE a series of questions before the meeting to help guide the discussion and focus testimony. DOE's answers will be posted at www.dnfsb.gov.
Public participation is invited and will be scheduled the morning and afternoon of Oct. 7 and the morning of Oct. 8 at the Federal Building in Richland.
Call 800-788-4016 by Oct. 1 to be scheduled at the section of the hearing most relevant to the proposed presentation. Written comments also will be accepted at the meeting.
Congress created the board within the executive branch of the federal government to provide independent oversight of the nation's nuclear weapons complex.
The board has launched an investigation of safety issues at the vitrification plant in response to a whistleblower complaint, but the meeting was planned before that.
-- Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com; more Hanford news at hanfordnews.com
