The Worst Yet to Come? Why Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a Ticking Time-Bomb

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12. And they've revised plutonium estimates upward, been repressing safety inspectors and have issues

with new facility.

Hanford Nuclear Site Bosses Stop Workers From Raising Safety Concerns, Says Federal Report
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/06/hanford_nuclear_site_bosses_st.php

The bigwigs in charge of the $12.2 billion nuclear cleanup effort at Hanford aggressively prevent workers from raising safety concerns, and if they do, punish them for it.
That's one of the conclusions drawn in a biting new report by the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.

The report follows an investigation by the DNFSB that was started after Hanford contractor Dr. Walter Tamosaitis was demoted for raising concerns that the cleanup effort had major flaws that could lead to a radiation leak or even a full-scale meltdown.


Hanford Nuclear Safety Manager Questions Waste Treatment Plant

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=145326474

RICHLAND, Wash. – Waste in underground tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation may have much more plutonium than previously thought. That's according to a report by a Hanford contractor that's just been leaked to public radio. It's also according to the latest high profile whistleblower to raise serious concerns about a waste treatment plant being built at the Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington.

Here is why you should care about what Donna Busche says. She told me she's the manager for environmental and nuclear safety at Hanford's waste treatment plant.

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Here are some of Busche's main concerns:

Hanford engineers have recently revised their estimates for how much plutonium is in the nuclear site's sludge. Listen to these numbers: Hanford engineers used to think they had 10 kilograms of plutonium in the tanks. They now believe they've got between 30 and 130 kilograms. Let's put that in perspective: The nuclear bomb at Nagasaki had about 6 kilograms of plutonium. In the worst case scenario Busche says Hanford could have 13 times more plutonium than previously thought.


DOE wants dismissal from Hanford whistleblower case
By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald


http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/05/04/1927527/doe-wants-dismissal-from-hanford.html

Tamosaitis is not seeking money from DOE. Instead, he wants the court to prohibit DOE from pressuring employees to take positions not based on scientific principles and to require DOE to draft a plan to ensure a balance between meeting deadlines at nuclear facilities and making sure decisions are based on sound science.

His attorney argued that Congress listed "abate the violation" as the primary remedy in the Energy Reorganization Act and that the court has discretion on how to do that.



DOE finds performance issues at Hanford vit plant, raising concerns about Bechtel management
By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
Published Saturday, May. 05, 2012
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/05/04/1927527/doe-wants-dismissal-from-hanford.html

Significant performance issues at the Hanford vitrification plant have raised serious concerns about Bechtel National's management system, according to a newly released Department of Energy report.

The concern came to light in the most recently released weekly staff report of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, which said that DOE had identified a Priority Level 1 finding "associated with the potential breakdown in contractor management and their less than adequate performance."

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Issues also included a lack of required design margin to address corrosion in vessels that will hold high level radioactive waste within the vitrification plant and an Office of Inspector General audit report made public earlier this week that addressed missing quality records for some high level radioactive waste vessels.

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"The performance issues described indicate BNI's corrective action process has not been fully effective and BNI has not been rigorous in ensuring contract requirements and technical and quality expectations are being met," the DOE report said.

Bechtel is working closely with DOE to ensure adequate design and safety margins and necessary documentation is in place to provide confidence that the facility will operate safely, Nelson said.