The Department of Energy’s decision not to impose its new high-level radioactive waste interpretation at the Hanford Site in Washington state avoided a lengthy squabble and made it easier for agencies to cut a new deal for cleaning up tank waste, an advisory panel heard Tuesday.
By not using a DOE 2020 reinterpretation that allows some high-level waste to be disposed of as low-level waste, the parties avoid “a long and costly battle,” Kelly Wood, of the Washington state attorney general’s office, told the Hanford Advisory Board.
The parties “agreed not to wrestle with this question,” Tim Hamlin of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the advisory panel.
Washington state has balked at the DOE reinterpretation, rolled out during the Donald Trump (R) administration and kept in place by President Joe Biden’s (D) secretary of energy, Jennifer Granholm. Washington lawmakers inserted a provision in the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that temporarily blocked its imposition in the state.
According to a joint presentation by DOE, EPA and the Washington Department of Ecology on Monday, DOE will “forebear” application of the reinterpretation at Hanford. At the same time, the agreement also opens the door to solidifying some of the liquid waste from Hanford tanks into a grout form.
The joint presentation to the board touted the holistic plan as a “safe, realistic, achievable course for cleanup of millions of gallons of radioactive and chemical tank waste” between now and 2040. Work continues well beyond 2040, but the 16-year span represents the duration of the settlement agreement announced April 29.
More than 100 negotiation sessions, held with help from federal mediators, occurred since June 2020, according to the joint presentation. There are three big parts to the holistic settlement.
One is an amendment to the existing consent decree between Washington and DOE in federal district court. Second, changes to the Tri-Party Agreement between the state, DOE and EPA. Thirdly, the settlement document to capture other related provisions and commitments.
The existing consent decree and Tri-Party Agreement will not be modified in accordance with the holistic agreement until at least the end of a 60-day public comment period scheduled to begin May 30.
The agreement sticks with existing timelines for starting to convert underground tank waste into a glass-like form at Bechtel’s Waste Treatment Immobilization and Treatment Plant. Low-activity waste vitrification was scheduled in 2025, with high-level-waste direct-feed operations expected to commence in 2033.
The settlement calls for removing waste from 22 tanks in Hanford’s 200 West Area by 2040. The agreement keeps legally-enforceable Tri-Party milestones for Pretreatment and High-Level Waste Facilities but places asterisks by some milestones that are expected to change, the briefers said Monday.
The settlement agreement also will set up an expert advisory panel that will, among other things, analyze saltwell pumping as a liquid removal technology for single-shell tanks that are leaking.
There is currently 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous waste stored in underground tanks at Hanford. It is the residue of decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.
