GAO REPORT
Hanford Waste Treatment Plant: DOE Is Pursuing Pretreatment Alternatives, but Its Strategy Is Unclear While Costs Continue to Rise
GAO | 5/12/2020
Within the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2020, a provision was included that allowed GAO to conduct a review of the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant project. Today, May 12, 2020, GAO released their report analyzing the Partially Constructed Hanford Pretreatment Facility. Since 2000, the Office of
Environmental Management (EM) has been building the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant to treat nuclear waste at Hanford. The $11 billion project to date has faced numerous problems including technical challenges, cost overruns, and schedule delays. In 2012, work on the pretreatment facility stopped until safety related issues and technical challenges were resolved. Following that shutdown, “DOE has spent $752 million (as of FY 2018), mostly to preserve and maintain it, and another $400
million pursuing facility alternatives to try to meet a 2023 goal. DOE has not used the best available methods to determine which alternative to pursue.”
Due to high costs and long delays, this report examines: “(1) the cost of pretreatment efforts from fiscal year 2013 through fiscal year 2018, (2) the status of the technical challenges facing the pretreatment facility, and (3) the steps EM is taking to start treating waste by 2023 as required, among other things.”
After reviewing EM documents, expenditure data, and interviewing EM officials, GAO is making two recommendations: “DOE ensure that its analysis of alternatives for pretreatment of high-level waste include a mission need statement and a life-cycle cost estimate for the baseline alternative."
The report highlights can be found HERE.
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