The Department of Energy’s recent decision to cut the size of the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB) in Washington state by nearly half would bring the membership more in line with other nuclear cleanup site advisory panels, based on a review by Exchange Monitor.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) announced last month it would cut the HAB from 38 to 20 members. Those 20, selected by DOE headquarters in Washington, D.C., would all be at-large members. Currently, 28 of the 38 voting members represent specific interests or organizations.
The DOE EM office also said it was ending a memorandum of understanding on the HAB with the Washington state Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), although a new deal might be reached in the future.
DOE Environmental Management said it was seeking to “modernize” the HAB and bring its operations more in line with other DOE site-specific advisory boards.
Based on Internet searches and contacts with other DOE nuclear cleanup sites, this would bring HAB membership size more in line with other DOE site advisory boards.
The Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board in Tennessee can have up to 22 members while the Savannah River Site Citizen Advisory Board in South Carolina can have up to 20 members.
The Portsmouth Site advisory board in Ohio is authorized for up to 20 members. The Paducah Site Citizens Advisory Board in Kentucky is comprised of up to 15 members.
The Northern New Mexico Site-Specific Advisory Board, which issues advice on remediation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, keeps between 17 and 20 voting members, according to online documents.
The Nevada Site-Specific Advisory Board for the Nevada National Security Site has 15 voting members. The Nevada site board also has several non-voting “liaisons,” as they are called, from nearby tribes and municipalities.
The Idaho Cleanup Project Citizens Advisory Board has 12 voting members.