Wash state officials balk at talk of WTP cancellation; Energysec says nothing has changed

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued a statement Tuesday seeking to knock down speculation DOE might cancel the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) weeks before it is scheduled to start converting some radioactive waste into glass at the Hanford Site.

“Contrary to news reports, the Department of Energy has made no changes to its longstanding commitment to the environmental cleanup of the Hanford site,” Wright said. “DOE is continuing to examine testing and operations of the DFLAW [Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste] site to ensure waste disposal options are safe, cost-effective, and environmentally sound.”

“Across the entire Department, we are actively working to improve the safety and efficacy of the important work we do each and every day,” Wright said. 

Wright’s statement came after Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) and a U.S. senator from the state voiced concern that DOE might pull the plug 

“We are deeply concerned by news reports suggesting the U.S. Department of Energy may cease work on the Waste Treatment Plant,” Ferguson said in a statement emailed to Exchange Monitor Tuesday morning from the Washington state Department of Ecology.

“Changing course now would cost taxpayers billions, violate multiple legal agreements, and extend clean up work for decades,” Ferguson said.

“I sincerely hope that the reports I’ve read are incorrect, but I have absolutely no intention of allowing the Trump administration to upend nuclear waste cleanup at Hanford and threaten progress at the Waste Treatment Plant,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in her own statement. 

“This administration has shown itself to be dangerously clueless about Hanford and clearly won’t think twice about tearing up the painstaking progress we’ve made over decades to clean up toxic nuclear waste—for those reasons I will be voting against Tim Walsh, Trump’s nominee to oversee Hanford,” Murray went on to say. 

Exchange Monitor and other outlets, including E&E News reported Monday that DOE has ousted Roger Jarrell, the top federal official at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. DOE confirmed that Jarrell, acting as EM-2 since April, was no longer at the department but would not discuss why.

The same source that told Exchange Monitor of Jarrell being terminated had previously told the publication that DOE was pushing Jarrell to have the $20-billion-dollar-plus WTP cancelled. The source said DOE is interested instead in solidifying 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous tank waste via grout.

Officials with Washington state and DOE had previously told Exchange Monitor as recently as Friday afternoon that DOE and Bechtel National were still targeting the October startup of the Low-Activity Waste Facilities at WTP.

DOE did not immediately say who would be stepping in to fill Jarrell’s position pending Senate confirmation of Tim Walsh to head Environmental Management