We are sending a complementary copy to vice-president Al Gore's office so that his efforts to improve government efficiency may benefit from Dr. Wonk's long, distinguished experience. Dr. Wonk Welcomes short letters from those in the government concerned with nuclear-weapons related issues. Letters should discuss good, bad, or ugly aspects of current policy and what out to be done to improve the latter two. Dr. Wonk may publish some of these letters, in abbreviated form. It's a lesson that DOE does not seem to be applying to its proposed vitrification plant at Hanford.
Negotiations are underway to for a large plant using a French design.
I like French designs too, but in this case, the wastes that the French are vitrifying at home have a very different chemical composition from those in stored in 177 tanks at Hanford. DOE officials are aware of that. The glass in question here is just like the Pyrex in your kitchen. What DOE urgently needs, and does not have, are methods to get the high-level wastes out of the tanks safely, and process them for one of two ends. Either they would be put in a dry, non-explosive form for later processing with glass or other waste form, or the treated wastes would be fed directly into a glass melter.