BRIEF: DOE to Issue Fine Over Vit Plant

By Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

Oct. 4–The Department of Energy plans to fine Bechtel National $165,000 for violating nuclear safety requirements as it designs and builds Hanford’s $12.2 billion vitrification plant.

The fine is for a series of violations between October 2001 and February 2006. They include failures in processes to control design changes and to ensure that equipment it bought met nuclear safety specifications, according to DOE.

If left uncorrected, the violations could have hampered safe and efficient operations of the vitrification plant when it begins turning radioactive waste into a stable glass form in 2019, according to DOE.

For more information, read Friday’s Herald.

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