The U.S. Department of Energy wants negotiations to start soon with Washington state and the Environmental Protection Agency over updated plans for radioactive waste stored in 177 underground tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
At the same time, the Energy Department said in a July 11 letter to Washington state Department of Ecology Nuclear Waste Program Manager Alex Smith that some of the updated milestones sought recently by the state are unrealistic.
In particular, the state’s desire to have a plan ready by October 2023 to move liquid waste from 149 single-shell tanks to double-shell tanks at Hanford would force DOE to adopt an approach before it digests the results of an ongoing alternatives analysis.
“There are several technical solutions to storing mixed waste and to staging and characterizing it for treatment,” Brian Vance, who manages both DOE offices at Hanford, wrote.
Vance was responding to a June 27 document from Smith, who indicated the state wants to expedite tank-waste deadlines under the Tri-Party Agreement. The 1989 agreement, between the state, DOE, and EPA, defines and prioritizes remediation programs for the former plutonium production complex. In the 1980s, it was assumed waste retrieval from single-shell tanks would start in 2018, but the deadline was delayed until 2040, Ecology’s Tri-Party coordinator John Price said by phone Monday.
The Energy Department also disagrees with a state milestone for construction of interim surface barriers at all five tank farms at Hanford. There are two in place now. The state wants the design plans for the first new surface barrier by late 2023. The federal agency’s chief objection is the barriers, meant prevent potentially contaminated rainfall and snowmelt around the tanks from getting into the soil, were not discussed in long-term planning last year, Price said.
The talks should start as soon as possible given the Energy Department’s intent to issue new contracts for Central Plateau Cleanup and tank closure this year, Vance added.
There is about 56 million gallons of radioactive and contaminated liquid waste at Hanford, left by decades of plutonium production.
