The Department of Energy on June 4 will start taking comments on a draft evaluation on the strategy for closing the 16 tanks in the C Farm radioactive waste storage area.
The announcement of the draft evaluation indicates DOE is interested in landfill closure of the single-shell tanks, likely by filling them with grout and leaving them buried in place. The Washington state Department of Ecology would need to approve any closure plan in a separate permitting process.
Leaving the mostly empty tanks in place is likely to receive at least some pushback. Jack Bell, director of the Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Program for the Nez Perce Tribe, said at a public meeting in April the tribe will not support filling a tank with concrete-like grout and keeping it in the ground. The Nez Perce – who have treaty rights to use of land encompassing Hanford — want the property returned to an uncontaminated condition, which would preclude leaving the tanks behind.
The Energy Department plans to release a draft “Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) Evaluation for Closure of Waste Management Area C at the Hanford Site” in time for a 96-day public comment period starting June 4. A public meeting will be held on the draft report and the performance report it relies on at a time to be announced June 18 at the Richland, Wash., Public Library.
The draft WIR evaluation is intended to show that the C Farm tanks, ancillary structures, and residual wastes can be safely managed as low-level radioactive waste and disposed of in place. It would evaluate whether waste that remains at the bottom of the tanks is immobilized to keep it from the environment, including keeping it from contaminating groundwater.
Hanford’s tank farms hold 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste that is the byproduct of decades of plutonium, dating to the Manhattan Project, for the U.S. nuclear deterrent.
