Senator Presses DOE Sec. on Hanford Timelines, Budget
WC Monitor
2/13/2015
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-wash.) pressed Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz late this week to provide a timeline for cleaning up two highly contaminated sites at Hanford given a proposed cut to the Richland Operations Office budget for next year. Moniz defended the FY 2016 budget request for Hanford at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. It would include a cut of $93 million to spending at the Richland Operations Office but an increase in spending of $202 million for the Hanford Office of River Protection. “While the Department is devoting significant resources to cleaning up the Waste Treatment Plant and tank farms, there’s concern that we may be giving some of the other cleanup priorities short shrift,” Cantwell said. “We need to make sure the resources are there for the DOE to live up to the commitment to clean up this waste.”
Cantwell is concerned about the timely cleanup of the 324 Building, which sits over a spill of highly radioactive material near the Columbia River, and the six-acre 618-10 Burial Ground, one of two high hazard burial grounds left near the river. DOE postponed work on the 324 Building after the spill was discovered. The building prevents precipitation from reaching the spill, which could drive it deeper toward the groundwater. The 618-10 Burial Ground is required by Tri-Party Agreement to be cleaned up by 2018. “The problem with the Hanford budget overall is that everybody always looks at it and thinks that we can do with less,” Cantwell said. “We’re obviously concerned about this reduction, and again, the priorities are so mammoth, we just want to make sure we’re making progress.”
The Richland Operations Office has made progress and under the fiscal 2016 budget proposal will continue “very strong progress,” Moniz said. “I want to emphasize that with this budget, we will get the Plutonium Finishing Plant — which has been judged to be, at one point, the highest risk project — down to slab this year,” he said. “We will be continuing to remediate groundwater, and we will continue the tremendous progress that’s been made in opening up the river corridor.” However, he said he would have to check to answer Cantwell’s question on the schedule for the river corridor’s 324 Building cleanup, including removal of the contamination in the soil beneath it, and the 618-10 Burial Ground.
Vapor Concerns, National Park Plans
Cantwell also asked Moniz about plans to protect workers from chemical vapors from the waste held in underground tanks and plans to preserve B Reactor as part of a new Manhattan Project National Historical Park. It is unacceptable that Hanford workers have been repeatedly exposed to chemical vapors with uncertain health effects, Cantwell said. DOE needs a resolution to improve protection now and also to make sure improvements are maintained into the future. Concerns about vapors have been raised in 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2014, she said.
DOE has directed Washington River Protection Solutions to implement all 47 recommendations in a recent review of tank vapors conducted by an independent team of experts led by the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, Moniz said. Some of the recommendations cannot be implemented until more information is gathered this year and next. The best way to institutionalize better protective measures is to succeed with the current recommendations being implemented, Moniz said.
DOE is required to enter into an agreement with the Department of Interior on their roles to establish a new national park within one year, under the bill passed in 2014 to create the park. DOE has scheduled the first meeting with the National Park Service, Moniz said. His agency’s goal is to have the agreement in one year, but until he learns the outcome of that meeting he’s reluctant to say the deadline will be met, he said. The public already can tour sites such as B Reactor, he said. But Cantwell said more access is needed to B Reactor. “There is so much public demand that people view this as probably one of the most positive developments,” she said. “The science story behind this is pretty incredible.”
