The Washington state Department of Ecology will kick off a 45-day public comment period in mid-August to take input on proposed changes by the Energy Department and CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation to the PUREX Storage Tunnels at the Hanford Site.
There are two public hearings slated, one Aug. 27 at 5:30 p.m., at the Richland, Wash., Public Library; the other will be Aug. 29 at 6:30 p.m., at University of Washington – Center for Urban Horticulture, NHS Hall, Seattle, Wash.
The hearings address proposed modifications to Hanford’s Site Dangerous Waste Permit connected with actions taken to grout Tunnel 1 and the proposed interim closure action for Tunnel 2, according to a Friday notice from the Ecology Department. There is a proposal to fill Tunnel 2 with engineered grout in an effort to reduce threats to the environment and human health.
A public meeting on the PUREX tunnels was held in March.
The older of the two tunnels was found partially collapsed May 2017. Because of the threat of further collapse, CH2M and a subcontractor filled the tunnel with a concrete-like grout before the state permit was updated. But the state permit will be revised before the second tunnel is stabilized. The Energy Department believes filling the 1,700-foot-long second tunnel with grout is the best interim option to stabilize it.
The Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, PUREX, was used to process irradiated fuel rods to collect plutonium for nuclear weapons during the Cold War. The tunnels store radioactive waste from the PUREX Plant.
