Vitrification plant design completion percentages
by Lynn Porter, April 26, 2002

At our April 18 meeting with the Oregon Office of Energy, we heard that "fast tracking" -- designing the tank waste vitrification plant while constructing it -- is required to make DOE's catch-up plan work.

Here is what I understood Doug Houston, OOE's tank waste expert, to say at the meeting about the current percent of design completion. All of this is "front end engineering design," required to get the Washington state permits that will be necessary for construction to begin.

Pretreatment design (getting waste out of tanks, separation of waste into high and low level) -- 60 percent completed.

High and low level glass making process design -- 70-80 percent complete.

Balance of facilities design (not directly associated with glass production) -- about 80 percent complete.

Doug said that he is "comfortable" with present design completion percentages. He said fast tracking design typically results in a 8-10 percent risk of construction rework.

Construction on the vitrification plant is supposed to start by the end of this year, possibly sooner. The plant is to be operating by 2007, and in full production of radioactive glass logs by 2011. By 2018 the plant is supposed to have vitrified 10 percent of the tank waste by volume, 25 percent of the radioactivity. There are hopes that more can be done by that date.

Doug said the proposed new Tri-Party Agreement milestones for the tank waste project would be adequate to track the project, even though there would be some long time gaps between some of the milestones. He said that Washington state has decided it has the authority to levy penalties against DOE if it looks like it will not meet tank waste milestones, instead of waiting until the milestone has not been met. This, in his view, reduces the need for frequent milestones.