Fluor Hanford has asked the Department of Energy for an extra 10 months to remove radioactive sludge from the K West Basin.

DOE has not decided whether to support Fluor's request, which would eventually lead to a proposed change in the Tri-Party Agreement, said Larry Earley, DOE's Hanford spent fuel project leader.

On Wednesday, Earley briefed the Hanford Advisory Board's river and plateau committee on the project's status.

The K Basins are two leak-prone indoor pools that once held 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel 400 yards from the Columbia River. Fluor is removing the fuel, processing it and trucking it to an underground vault in central Hanford.

Fluor is expected to beat the legal Tri-Party Agreement deadline to remove the spent fuel but is lagging in removing 78 cubic yards of highly radioactive sludge.

The Tri-Party Agreement called for starting sludge removal by the end of 2002. Fluor hopes to actually begin moving sludge in late November, but appears to be one or two weeks behind that target, Earley said.

Because of the delay, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined DOE and Fluor $76,000 last spring. The EPA has not decided if it will impose more fines. Meanwhile, DOE hinted in August that it's considering replacing Fluor on the sludge removal.

The 11-month delay is partly due to Fluor concentrating on moving fuel while delaying sludge removal.

Another reason for the delay has been a technical problem in putting the sludge into an enclosed container fast enough to prevent the sludge's uranium from reacting with the water's oxygen and hydrogen components, creating a potentially flammable combination.

Fluor believes it has recently solved that problem by replacing the helium gas in the containers with argon gas, which should speed up the packing process and head off the flammability threat.

Fluor believes it can start sludge removal in time to move the 65 cubic yards in the K East Basin to a T Plant storage site by the Tri-Party Agreement deadline of Aug. 31, 2004.

But that date is also the deadline to finish moving the 13 cubic yards of sludge in the K West Basin, which Fluor believes it cannot accomplish in time unless it buys and sets up extra equipment, which would boost costs. So the company asked DOE for an extension until June 30, 2005, to complete the K West work. The rest of the K Basins project appears to be close to its timetable. HAB committee members said although the overall project has hit some snags, they are happy completion is near and is being finished close to the Tri-Party Agreement schedule.

Here's the status of other K Basin work:

-- Fluor expects to finish moving 2,300 tons of fuel by May 31, two months ahead of deadline.

-- The Tri-Party Agreement requires Fluor to move 1,781 tons by Dec. 31. That target is obtainable, said Larry Gadbois of the EPA.

-- The deadline for moving fuel from the K East Basin to K West is May 31. Fluor hopes to finish in January. Earley believes March is more realistic.