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Part 3 of 5 Parts (Please read Part 1 and 2 first)
    The draft study laid out options that might help the project such as expanding the plant which could push costs to twenty billion dollars or more. They also suggested that perhaps a cheaper treatment system could be utilized such as using grout or fluidized-bed stream reforming that would result in a ceramic-like material instead of glass. Unfortunately, these alternatives have not been fully developed or tested. If they are attempted, the cost could rise even further. DoE and Washington State announced in September that they would hold a new round of talks in November to discuss cleanup strategies and deadlines. It has been suggested that a professional mediator could be employed for the talks which could extend into next summer.
    While work on the high-level waste facility remains stalled, the DoE says that it is tightly focused on starting up the low-level waste treatment by 2023. Once it is turned on, it will be able to function twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year. Valerie McCain is the Bechtel principle vice president and Vit Plant project director. She said that “We are really at a stage we have never been at before. People can see the end is in sight.”
     It may be premature to talk about the end being in sight. It is now estimated that it may take until 2100 to completely clean up Hanford. Future cost estimates span the range from three hundred billion dollars to almost seven hundred billion dollars. About seven hundred million of that is dedicated to the low-level waste facility each year. However, uncertainty about annual funding levels for the Vit Plant is impeding progress.
    The 2020 budget submitted by the Trump administration cut about three hundred and eighty million dollars from the overall Hanford site cleanup. The House of representatives 2020 spending bill restored the funds cut in the Presidents budget request. Still, that is about thirty-seven million dollars less than the cleanup funding for 2019. The Senate 2020 spending bill is still in committee, but it does suggest that more money than the House spending bill be dedicated to Hanford cleanup.
     Republican Washington State Representative Dan Newhouse serves the district where Hanford is located. He says that he is constantly monitoring the cleanup and is confident that the low-level waste facility will be operational within the deadline. He said, “The federal government has a legal and moral obligation to complete the cleanup, and we must ensure the significant resources going toward the effort.”
    There has been a great deal of progress in connecting the Vit Plant facilities. Supporting facilities and systems have been constructed. A large amount of the interlocking piping system, as well as electrical and utilities infrastructure have been completed. There are one hundred and eighty subsystems in the low-level waste management facility. Of those, about sixty have been completed and startup and testing are underway. Another ninety-two systems are in startup, and the last twenty-four systems are nearing the point in construction where they will be turned over to startup.
Please read Part 4