A federal judge has set new consent decree milestones for tank waste management and treatment at the Hanford Site, extending the deadline to have the Waste Treatment Plant fully operating by 14 years to 2036. The order also sets milestones for emptying waste from the 11 tanks under the consent decree that still hold waste and increases requirements for DOE to provide information to the states of Washington and Oregon. “These milestones should be viewed as enforceable legal duties rather than optimal, idealistic goals,” said Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson in an order filed late Friday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington. The revised consent decree closes the court case, although DOE and Washington state have 30 days to request modifications. The judge will only allow filings if both parties jointly request a change.
The judge stuck to the 19 deadlines in the original consent decree for the vitrification plant rather than creating dozens of new deadlines to keep DOE on pace as Washington state had requested. She also rejected DOE’s proposal that near-automatic extensions be granted if it had trouble meeting new deadlines for a variety of reasons. “DOE’s extension mechanism would create a vacuum in which DOE would be free to proceed at its own rate without any safeguards for Washington or enforcement by the court,” Malouf Peterson said. Key deadlines for the vitrification plant would include completing hot commissioning – demonstrating it could immobilize radioactive waste in glass of acceptable quality – by 2023. The judge did not require construction of a new facility to provide some limited pretreatment of low-activity waste because it was not in the original consent decree. But it likely will be needed to meet the 2023 deadline for the Low-Activity Waste Facility operation, which would fall long before the vit plant’s Pretreatment Facility is expected to be operating. The Pretreatment Facility and High-Level Waste Facility would need to have hot commissioning completed in 2033.
The new deadlines for emptying tanks included in the original consent decree gives DOE more flexibility to decide which it would empty first among two C Farm tanks and nine tanks in the A and AX farms. At least four would need to be emptied in 2020 and the remainder by March 2024. Malouf Peterson is not requiring that more double-shell tanks be built immediately as the state had requested. However, if the 2020 tank waste retrieval deadline is not met, she would consider requiring new double-shell tanks. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he hopes the ruling marks a new level of collaboration and progress toward cleanup. “I have been repeatedly frustrated by the delays and lack of progress,” he said. DOE said in a brief statement it is reviewing the court’s decision and “remains committed to the successful treatment of tank waste at Hanford as soon as practicable.”
