Who’s Paying Safety Costs
At Hanford: Contractors or Taxpayers?

Five members of Congress are calling for the Goverment Accountability Office to investigate the costs from repeated nuclear and worker safety stand downs at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hanford Waste Treatment Plant and Tank Farms in southeastern Washington State.

From the letter sent by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee:

In July 2007, the tank farm contractor’s efforts to unclog a pump resulted in high-level waste being forced up a fresh water line. The line ruptured and leaked between 50–100 gallons of waste. A stand-down and a design review were ordered to correct the engineering failures in the high-level waste pumping systems.

When these stand-downs occur, it is our understanding that DOE usually picks up the tab for any cost overruns. Poor contractor performance and failure to adhere to nuclear safety and other requirements, however, contributed to these stand-downs/slowdowns. Cost and schedule increases might have been avoided had there been more effective regulation by DOE. The Committee is assessing whether DOE’s contractors should be held financially accountable for the costs of any schedule delays and cost overruns due to their failure to adhere to nuclear safety and other requirements.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 10:12 am and is filed under Environment, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.