Nuclear Waste
Pretreatment Modifications at DOE Hanford's B Plant Should Be Stopped Gao ID: RCED-91-165 June 12, 1991Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) plans to modify its Hanford Site B Plant in Washington to pretreat mixed high-level radioactive waste before the vitrification process to turn it into glass.
GAO found that: (1) although DOE was aware that the plant had not met specific federal or DOE regulations since 1987, it failed to timely discuss the compliance problems with Washington; (2) although the plant did not comply with regulatory requirements, DOE considered modification less costly than construction of a new facility; (3) despite a March 1991 recommendation by Washington that DOE abandon plans to establish the plant as a pretreatment facility, DOE continued to modify B Plant for that purpose; (4) the process DOE was developing for pretreating approximately 75 percent of its high-level waste could cause extensive corrosion to the plant's embedded waste pipes; (5) DOE was reevaluating B Plant's viability as a pretreatment facility, alternative pretreatment processing options, and alternative pretreatment facilities; (6) a DOE assessment of vitrification process risks suggested that B Plant would not meet federal environmental requirements; (7) DOE believed that its noncompliance was due to the absence of double containment for pipes, tanks, and other processing facilities; and (8) even though DOE halted modification projects totalling more than $400 million, it continued pretreatment projects totalling about $43 million.
RecommendationsOur recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
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