[Organize] How is Bechtel spending your tax dollars?

[ralph hutchison]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Scott Kovac <scott at nukewatch.org>
Date: July 18, 2006 11:51:16 AM EDT
To: <bananas at lists.drizzle.com>
Subject: [Bananas] This Just In...Estimated cost of Hanford's 
vitrification plant may increase

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/7978372p-7871699c.html

Estimated cost of Hanford's vitrification plant may increase
This story was published Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer

The estimated price of Hanford's vitrification plant could increase to 
$13.2
billion after the Army Corps of Engineers completes a study of the 
project,
according to a Washington, D.C., trade publication.
Weapons Complex Monitor relied on an anonymous source for the 
information.
"We have not received any formal transmission from anyone with that
information," said Carrie Meyer, spokeswoman for Bechtel National, the
Department of Energy contractor building the plant.
The Corps is working on a draft report commissioned to validate cost and
schedule estimates prepared by Bechtel National.
"We have not received the final report," said Megan Barnett, 
spokeswoman for
the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., also still is expecting the report, said
spokeswoman Jessica Gleason.
The final report from the Corps was expected by the end of July, 
according
to a Bechtel report in June on the plant's cost and schedule.
Now DOE is saying the Corps report is expected to be issued in late 
summer.
In June, Bechtel finished a detailed cost and schedule estimate for the
plant that estimated the cost at $11.55 billion and the start of 
operations
in 2019. DOE gave that report to the Army Corps to validate.
At the start of 2005, the plant was estimated to cost about $5.8 
billion and
was supposed to be ready to begin operating by a 2011 deadline.
As problems have been revealed since then, Energy Secretary Samuel 
Bodman
has called for a valid and defensible cost and schedule estimate.
Problems have included technical challenges and an earthquake study that
showed key parts of the plant may not withstand a severe earthquake.
Congress believes the project should have been better managed, and an
independent expert review panel said the cost and schedule estimates 
needed
a greater contingency. Budget cuts also are adding to the cost 
increases.
The plant is intended to turn millions of gallons of radioactive waste 
held
in aging underground tanks into a stable glass form for disposal. The 
waste
is left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear
weapons program.

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