The next two years could make or break Hanford's efforts to turn radioactive tanks wastes into glass, members of the Hanford Advisory Board said Friday. Hanford has 54 million gallons of wastes in 177 underground tanks. The Department of Energy has hired BNFL Inc. to build and operate plants to convert the wastes into glass. That contract was recently signed to glassify the most radioactive 10 percent of the waste by 2018. The first two plants are supposed to begin operating in 2007 and 2008.
Future contracts are to set up other plants later.
This is a design-only contract. Consequently, the Hanford board and the Washington Department of Ecology want to watch the design work closely. And the state wants DOE to commit now to proceeding with construction after August 2000 through a legally enforceable milestone. Meanwhile, Hanford board members and the state voiced concerns about Hanford being able to deliver the right wastes in the right conditions to the right place at the right times. Lockheed Martin Hanford Corp. is the subcontractor in charge of that project.