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For additional information contact: RIC Submits Comments to DOE on its Draft Hanford Procurement FALLS CHURCH, VA-- James Jordan, President of the Radioactive Isolation Consortium, LLC released the Company's August 14, 2000 comments to the Department of Energy on DOE's draft request for proposal on the Hanford waste treatment system. "The DOE has a unique opportunity to do it
right at Hanford," Jordan said. "The vitrification technology
previously planned for Hanford will be very expensive and has a number of
technical weaknesses that do not bode well for its technical or economic
long-term performance at Hanford, he said."
"RIC intended its comments to DOE to be
constructive. RIC has much to offer in its technology's potential to
substantially lower costs for waste vitrification at Hanford. RIC's
technology, known as the Advanced Vitrification System, offers the
potential to overcome serious technical weaknesses in the joule melter and
enable the Hanford waste vitrification system to function at much lower
costs," Jordan said.
RIC observed in its comments that the draft DOE
procurement could potentially incentivize the contractor to hide defects,
compromising long-term performance of the high-level waste vitrification
technology.
RIC attached to its comments an analysis of the
technical weaknesses in the joule melter, which should also be of interest
to the potential bidders. In its comments, RIC noted the anticipated
strengths of the AVS technology to overcome the technical weaknesses of
the joule melter. RIC offered that its AVS technology could serve as an
"off-ramp" to process wastes outside the narrow chemical
specification for the waste feed in which the joule melter operates.
Finally, RIC noted that for about 1 percent of the contract, the AVS
technology could be an integrated backup for the joule melter, providing
an insurance policy against failure of an
"all-the-eggs-in-one-basket" approach. "If DOE opens its procurement to alternate
technology and not just the joule melter, RIC is ready willing and able to
partner with other bidders to strengthen their proposals with very
attractive technical and economic attributes, Jordan said. "The AVS
technology is a perfect fit for the diverse Hanford wastes. It has been
proven at the bench scale, and no engineering roadblocks have been
identified that would prevent it from being successful. The payback is so
large and the investment relatively small, that it offers a very
attractive option for DOE," he said.
RIC's advanced vitrification process was invented by
Dr. James R. Powell and Dr. Morris Reich, two Senior Scientists who were
formerly with Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. It
is a modular, in-canister vitrification system. The Company is currently
negotiating with DOE for further testing expected to begin later this
month. RIC's comment paper is available for downloading in
Adobe Acrobat PDF format at http://www.ricllc.com/hancom.pdf. |
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