RICHLAND — A new report says the federal government should consider further limiting construction at a facility being built to deal with nuclear waste at Hanford until it has plans to deal with risk.
The General Accountability Office report was released Thursday. The Tri-City Herald reported that the GAO also recommended the Department of Energy make sure it finds the best alternatives to address technical and schedule problems at the vitrification plant.
Hanford was created by the Manhattan Project during World War II. The sprawling complex near is involved in a multi-decade cleanup program that already has cost more than $40 billion.
The vitrification plant is being built to turn up to 56 million gallons of radioactive waste held in underground tanks into a stable glass form for disposal. The waste is left from making plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
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