A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Government Accountability Office to review monitoring and maintenance of aging facilities at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state after the May 9 discovery of a breached waste tunnel.
“Fortunately, the collapse did not result in any injuries and no measureable release of radioactive or toxic materials into the atmosphere or the surrounding environment,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, this event raises several questions concerning the cleanup of facilities … which are not scheduled to be decontaminated and demolished in the near future.”
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was the lead signatory on the letter. It also was signed by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the same committee; Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.); Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.); Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).
The lawmakers requested a review focused on the legacy infrastructure managed by Hanford’s Richland Operations Office, including contaminated equipment, facilities, waste sites, groundwater, soil, and other non-tank waste. Tank waste is the responsibility of Hanford’s other DOE office, the Office of River Protection.
The letter asked for some information specific to the central Hanford PUREX plant waste tunnel that was breached, a second waste tunnel at PUREX, and other PUREX facilities. The lawmakers want the GAO to review how the tunnels have been monitored, plans to further stabilize the breached tunnel, and plans to remove the waste from both tunnels. The lawmakers also asked the GAO to conduct a broader review of Hanford’s aging infrastructure managed by the Richland Operations Office, most of it in central Hanford.
