The Department of Energy would like to send 3.1 million gallons of Hanford waste in up to 20 tanks to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, giving it more flexibility to deal with possibly leaking single-shell tanks, it announced Wednesday. “This alternative, if implemented, would not impact the continued safe operations and performance of the WIPP facility,” said Dave Huizenga, head of the DOE Environmental Management program. He joined Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on a daylong tour of Hanford Wednesday, the governor’s first visit since taking office in January. Inslee called the transuranic waste proposal “a good start.” “The state of Washington had been pushing to get this waste out of Hanford and I’m heartened that the increased attention on these leaking tanks has prompted DOE to act,” he said. However, he wants to make sure that the proposed action does not jeopardize progress on the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant.
Preparing the first shipment to WIPP will require two to four years work, Inslee said. That could include making sure that tank waste can be classified as transuranic waste, modification of the WIPP permit to accept tank waste and developing a system to dry and possibly grout waste to be sent to WIPP. “There are a lot of hurdles between here and New Mexico,” said Tom Fletcher, the DOE assistant manager of the Hanford tank farms. The 20 tanks include 11 with contact-handled waste and nine with remote-handled waste. Developing a facility for the remote-handled waste might be so expensive that it would be less costly to send the waste to the Waste Treatment Plant as high-level radioactive waste, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology. Five of the six Hanford single-shell tanks identified as leaking are being considered for classification as contact-handled transuranic waste tanks and the sixth tank holds high level radioactive waste.
