The Department of Energy surprised the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB) in Richland, Wash., this month when it unveiled plans to shrink the number of board members and shift appointment authority to the federal government.
In an Aug 12 press release, DOE announced plans to “strengthen” and “modernize” the HAB, partly by cutting the federal advisory board’s membership nearly in half, to only 20 members. The changes, which start Oct. 1, will bring HAB more in line with the model used by other site-specific advisory boards for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
“Improving the Hanford Advisory Board will ensure continuity and efficiency while empowering those who live, work and raise their families closest to Hanford,” DOE Hanford Field Office Manager Ray Geimer said in the news release.
“There are 38 seats on the board representing perspectives from local governments, the Hanford workforce, public health and environmental organizations, universities, the public-at-large, and tribal nations,” according to HAB’s 2025 annual report. “HAB members may serve up to three two-year terms and the terms are approved by DOE headquarters,” according to the report.
The current 38-member board is made up of 28 individuals representing specific interests or organizations and “10 public-at-large” members, according to an email response from a Washington state Department of Ecology spokesperson. The 20-person board under the new HAB setup would all be at-large members.
“We do not know who these 20 members will be,” the spokesperson said in the statement. Geimer told HAB this month DOE is reviewing 25 potential members.
For decades, Hanford made plutonium during World War II and the Cold War. HAB advises DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state of Washington on Hanford’s nuclear cleanup under what is known as the Tri-Party Agreement.
But DOE said in an Aug. 12 letter that it was revoking a June 2008 memorandum of understanding with the state and EPA on the HAB makeup within 60 days although it is open to negotiating a new MOU.
“DOE remains committed to working with the Tri-Party Agencies to support continued involvement in engaging with the Hanford community in the cleanup process,” DOE said in the letter signed by Geimer. “Over the last few months, we have jointly attempted to revise and update the HAB Memorandum of Understanding to align with anticipated changes to the HAB. We have been unable to reach alignment on revisions so, “
The Tri-City Herald newspaper reported that plans to dramatically revamp the board have been met with criticism by environmental groups and tribes currently represented on the board.
Despite this matter being discussed for months internally at DOE, the board first learned about this move when Geimer announced the decision at the HAB’s Aug. 12 meeting in Richland.
DOE’s planned changes to HAB “will substantially restrict Ecology’s involvement and change the makeup and operation of the board,” the state Department of Ecology said in a statement shared with Exchange Monitor.
“This action is the culmination of several years of unilateral decide-announce-defend decision-making by Energy that disregards 32 years of meaningful collaboration and goodwill between the agencies and communities most impacted by cleanup,” the Washington department went on to say. “The termination of our memorandum of understanding and these unilateral changes fundamentally restructures the Board and ignores why it was formed in the first place. We urge Energy to reconsider these changes.”