The Department of Energy’s contention that the state of Washington lacks authority to order installation of decontamination showers at a waste disposal site won’t block a larger permit modification for the facility, state and federal agencies agreed last week.
“Due to the critical need for the timely execution of Direct-Feed Low Activity Waste at Hanford,” the Washington Department of Ecology and DOE agreed to “narrowing of the scope of the stay” to just the dispute over decontamination showers at the Integrated Disposal Facility, according a notice filed with a state administrative panel.
The notice was filed Oct. 19 with the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board.
In late June, DOE balked at the idea that Washington has the power to require it and contractor Central Plateau Cleanup Co. to install two decontamination showers at the low-level waste disposal facility. DOE asserted federal law gives it “the exclusive authority to regulate worker health and safety issues at Hanford—including determining when decontamination showers are necessary,” according to the June filing.
The responsibility for worker safety rests with DOE under various federal statutes including the Atomic Energy Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, DOE said in its June filing. But DOE said it would file paperwork with the state agency laying out why decontamination showers are unnecessary at the Integrated Disposal Facility’s treatment pad or leachate collection units.
A hearing on the decontamination shower issue is currently slated for July 1, 2024, according to online records.
Located in the 200 Area of the Hanford Site, the Integrated Disposal Facility is being modified to support glass-making at the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. Vitrification of low-level radioactive tank waste into glass is currently targeted for startup in 2025. Plans call for the disposal facility to take six-to-nine containers daily.
