Leaders in the village of Piketon, Ohio, have asked federal and state agencies to hold a public hearing on the waste that will go into the planned On-Site Disposal Cell at the Energy Department’s nearby Portsmouth Site.
The Piketon Village Council on Aug. 20 approved a resolution asking DOE and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for a public hearing on the “waste acceptance criteria” to be used for the facility. The resolution notes Piketon and other local governments near the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant cleanup have passed resolutions opposing the cell.
The Energy Department envisions the $900 million cell as storing 2 million cubic yards of waste resulting from demolition of buildings once used for uranium enrichment at Portsmouth.
The Energy Department issued, with concurrence from the Ohio EPA, the final record of decision (ROD) for the cell in June 2015. The document found the cell posed no significant environmental risk and was a good way of disposing of waste with low levels of contamination requiring little or no treatment prior to disposal.
Critics, including Piketon Mayor Billy Spencer, have been unable to convince regulators to reopen the ROD, despite arguing the bedrock under the cell has fractures that make it unsuitable for the disposal project.
The Energy Department has concluded the disposal cell would be a safe means to dispose of the waste and would mean quicker remediation of most of the Portsmouth Site.
The Ohio EPA has yet to approve the final design for the facility. The Energy Department has targeted initial waste emplacement at the site in fiscal 2021.