New milestones being proposed by the Tri-Party Agreement agencies for central Hanford remediation operations are unprecedented, only extending cleanup and not offering any project acceleration to balance that, according to the Hanford Advisory Board. It has sent a letter of advice to the Department of Energy and its regulators for the Hanford Site – the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology – largely critical of the proposed milestone changes. The changes cover much of the remaining cleanup work in central Hanford, with the exception of underground waste tanks and the Waste Treatment Plant. Another recent set of proposed changes covers retrieval and treatment of suspect transuranic waste in central Hanford.
The board said it is concerned that the most recently negotiated delays “were too easily pushed out using insufficient funding as an excuse, rather than proposing more stringent cleanup deadlines to make the case for more funding.” The Tri-Party agencies should negotiate more stringent deadlines to demonstrate the important of Hanford work as Congress sets budgets, according to the board. “The board believes there is nothing impossible, nor impractical, about accomplishing remediation under the original (Tri-Party Agreement) milestones, utilizing technology that is currently available,” it said. The proposed changes appear to falsely assume that contaminants in Hanford disposal trenches, in the soil, and in the groundwater will stay put during the delays, according to the letter.
The proposed changes include extending the deadline for completing remedial investigations and feasibility studies for much of the central Hanford work from the end of 2016 to mid-2026. Excluded from the deadlines are Hanford processing canyons and underground waste storage tanks. The deadline for completing the cleanup work covered by the investigations and studies now is September 2024. That would be replaced with dates “to be determined” as records of decisions are issued. The deadline for submitting dates for completion of processing canyon cleanup would be extended from September 2022 to mid-2026. The deadlines also cover some remaining river corridor cleanup, including completion of work at the 324 Building and the 618-11 Burial Ground. Those deadlines would be extended for three years to September 2021.
Setting milestones for work as “to be determined” is not acceptable, the board said. That message was repeatedly heard at public meetings earlier in the winter. “The goal should be to establish specific, achievable milestones within a process that allows for changing milestones when necessary,” the board said. The remedial investigation and feasibility study deadlines and deadlines for follow-on work should be accelerated, it added. It had no objection to the 2021 deadline for the 618-11 Burial Ground, but said an earlier deadline is needed for cleanup of the highly radioactive plume beneath the 324 Building. “Extremely high radiation levels and proximity to the Columbia River and to the people living within the boundary of the city of Richland morally obligates near-term action,” the board said. It also wants DOE to investigate whether the PUREX tunnels used for waste disposal pose a high risk and to change milestones to reflect the high risk posed by cesium and strontium capsules now stored underwater in central Hanford. DOE plans to move them to dry storage until disposal capabilities are available.
The state of Oregon also has sent a letter to DOE on the proposed Tri-Party Agreement change package for central Hanford. Delays were anticipated because of the focus in recent years on cleanup along the Columbia River rather than preparing to meet looming milestones for central Hanford cleanup. But Oregon said it was surprised by the length of the proposed delays. Most deadlines are delayed by a minimum of a decade, and those “to be determined” deadlines will likely slip an additional two or three decades, Oregon said. It objected to open-ended deadlines, saying the Tri-Parties should “take their best shot at developing a realistic, achievable milestone – even if is one that will cause major concern. We and the public need to understand the expected length of delay.” The state of Oregon also is concerned that DOE’s plans to complete three major projects in 2021 are unrealistic. The projects are demolition of U Plant, cleanup of the 618-11 Burial Ground, and remediation of the soil beneath the 324 Building.
