• September 10, 2012

Bechtel National Inc., a U.S Department of Energy waste management contractor responsible for completing a waste treatment plant at a Hanford, Wash., radioactive waste site, has been described as incompetent more than 10 years into the job, Forbes reported.

The plant, which was supposed to begin operation last year, is intended to encase in glass 52 million gallons of radioactive and toxic waste, the article indicates.

An Aug. 23 DOE memo calls for Bechtel to be removed from the project, citing 34 examples of instances Bechtel's design advice was factually incorrect, unsafe or more costly than alternatives.

"The behavior and performance of Bechtel Engineering places unnecessarily high risk that the WTP design will not be effectively completed," DOE official Gary Brunson wrote in the memo.

Frank Russo, Bechtel's project director, argued the DOE approved Bechtel's design solutions.

"Every one of the things in (the) memo are decisions that were discussed transparently, agreed upon," he told USA Today.

The current estimated cost of the Hanford project is $12 billion. DOE officials said they would review the memo, Forbes reported.

w w w . w a s t e r e c y c l i n g n e w s . c o m

copyright 2012 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.