Area Stakeholders Weigh in On Consent Decree Suit
WC Monitor
117/2014
Two Hanford-area agencies have asked the federal court to consider what is best for the people who live near Hanford as a judge weighs competing proposals from the Department of Energy and state of Washington for amending Hanford’s court-enforced consent decree. The Tri-City Development Council and the Hanford Communities, a coalition of local governments, filed a “friend of the court” brief in the case this week . “This community is the most affected and the first affected” by the decision of the court on new milestones and requirements for Hanford cleanup, said Carl Adrian, TRIDEC president.
The two groups take issue with the proposed amendments filed by both the state and federal governments. They oppose the state of Washington’s plan to require DOE to build at least four more waste storage tanks at a cost of $480 million and DOE’s resistance to setting specific milestones. They also want measures that would allow the community to help shape Hanford cleanup policy. The state of Oregon also filed in the case this week as an intervenor on the plaintiff’s side, supporting the state of Washington’s proposal for new milestones and requirements for DOE.
Groups Question Proposal for New Tanks
Whether cleanup is delayed by prioritizing storage over disposal or because of Congressional gridlock on funding, the community suffers, the local agencies said in their court filing. “The community needs cleanup to move forward, both for the long-term good and safety of the citizenry and to help end the national media’s disparagement of the region,” the document said. Requiring more double-shell tanks to store the waste emptied from single-shell tanks would discourage and delay the more urgent need for permanent treatment and disposal, the local agencies said. “The communities’ interest is far better served by getting rid of the waste than by continuing to store it — decade after decade,” they said.
The state is proposing that DOE build four new tanks to hold at least 4 million gallons of waste initially, with the potential for requiring an additional four million gallons of storage at a later date. Building the first four tanks could take eight to 10 years and their cost would divert money from higher priority projects, the two agencies said. The project appears to be a low priority, the agencies said, with even the state saying on its website that leak-prone tanks are in an isolated area at least five miles from the Columbia River and far from homes and farms. The groundwater is 200 to 300 feet below the tanks and new leaks will take decades to reach it. In addition, groundwater treatment plants in the center of Hanford are keeping most of the already contaminated groundwater from moving toward the Columbia River, the state says on its website.
National media are exaggerating the risk of leaking tanks, the court document said, citing a Bloomberg Business Week story that said the tanks “threaten water supplies for millions across the Northwest.” “The national exposure given to these unfounded exaggerations undeniably damages the Tri-Cities community’s image and the marketability of the agricultural products raised here,” according to the two agencies. The only way to end unreasonable fears is to treat and dispose of waste, they said.
Leaking Tanks May Not be Largest Risk, Groups Say
The Columbia River must be protected, but the court should not accept the idea that leaking tanks are the most significant threat to the river, TRIDEC and Hanford Communities said. The DOE inspector general considers the storage of 1,900 capsules of cesium and strontium in Hanford’s Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility a major public health and environmental safety risk, according to the court document. The concrete liner of the plant’s water-filled storage basin is deteriorating. The K West Basin contains highly radioactive sludge that must be monitored at a cost of $20 million per year. The Environmental Protection Agency has begun levying a fine against DOE of $10,000 per week for failing to begin removal of the sludge. The 324 Building just north of Richland is near the river and has high-levels of radioactive material, presenting “a significantly higher risk to the public and the environment that the waste stored at the tank farms,” the court document said. As the court studies the competing state and federal proposals for tank waste retrieval and storage, it should consider whether accepting one will cause greater or less harm to other high-risk projects at Hanford.
Groups Pushing For Specific Milestones Instead of General Time Frames
Whatever the court approves needs to have specific milestones, rather than the general time frames and commitments to set deadlines proposed by DOE, the two agencies said. “The community needs the court to play an active role in ensuring the cleanup work moves forward,” they said. “Without specific milestones, the cleanup work will continue to drag on.” Those who live and work near Hanford have seen continual turnover in Hanford management, including 14 managers or acting managers in the last nine years for the three DOE offices in the Tri-Cities, the document said. Since 1964, DOE has had about 33 prime contractors doing environmental cleanup at Hanford. In the past six years, the top leadership for those contractors has changed on average about every two years. “Milestones force continuity,” the two agencies said. Community members are the constant and the court should consider measures to allow them to provide input into shaping policy and addressing cleanup issues, the two agencies said.
Tank Farm Workers to Use Supplied-Air Respirators Temporarily
WC Monitor
11/7/2014
Hanford tank farm workers were told this week to start using supplied-air respirators temporarily for much of the work in the tank farms where chemical vapors have been an issue. The order is in place until more is known about the effectiveness of the chemical cartridges used in half-face respirators to purify air. That could take a few weeks to determine, said Dave Olson, president of Washington River Protection Solutions. Evaluating the effectiveness of the chemical cartridges was among the recommendations released last week in the Hanford Tank Vapor Assessment Report, which was commissioned by WRPS and independently led by the Savannah River National Laboratory. After receiving a working draft of the report, WRPS began requiring a minimum of half-face respirators in single-shell tank farms and also double-shell tank farms with a risk of chemical vapor releases. WRPS upgraded the respirator requirement to temporary use of supplied-air respirators after discussions were held early this week with leaders of the study team.
The report concluded that short, but intense releases of vapors at relatively high concentrations are the likely cause of worker symptoms, including headaches and coughing. Since this spring, 54 workers have received medical evaluations for possible exposure to chemical vapors. All have been released to return to work, but workers are concerned about whether the exposure to chemicals could harm their health long term.
WRPS Beginning to Implement Panel Recommendations
WRPS has begun to implement about half the 47 recommendations in the new report, Olson said at a Hanford Advisory Board committee meeting. Full implementation of all the recommendations, which include some research projects, could take four or five years and cost millions of dollars, he said. More industrial hygiene staff have been hired with the goal of increasing from 60 to 220 industrial hygiene employees. The tank farms will have nearly as many workers protecting against chemical exposures as protecting against radiological exposures, giving the protection programs equal importance, Olson said.
Real-time chemical vapor monitoring is being done in the C Tank Farm, where single-shell tanks are being emptied of waste, and new vapor monitoring technologies are being tested in the A and AX Tank Farms before waste retrieval starts there. A pilot project has been launched to see if optical gas imaging cameras used in the petroleum industry can be modified to detect clouds of vapors before workers are exposed and to sound an alarm.
WRPS Wants To Get to ‘Exposure-Free, Symptom-Free Situation’
The new temporary requirement for supplied air respirators applies to work in single-shell tank farms, which vent chemical vapors into the air. The requirement also covers double-shell tank farms, which have active ventilation systems, if exhaustors are not working, work is being done that disturbs waste or there is an opening into a tank. “WRPS wants to evaluate the effectiveness of the cartridges in reducing or preventing exposures from the unique chemical mixtures that may be present in the tank farms,” Olson said in a message to employees. That will include making sure the chemicals are not breaking through to be breathed by workers and the cartridges are not becoming saturated. “Based on the evaluation findings, the required use of supplied air could be discontinued at a later date, on a farm-by-farm basis,” he said.
The tank farms will never be free of chemical odors, Olson said at the committee meeting. “That just isn’t going to happen. Our intent is to get to an exposure-free, symptom-free situation,” he said. He expects to have a draft proposal on implementing the report’s recommendations, including estimates of cost and schedule, to the team that prepared the report later this month and to have a final plan finished in December.
Evaporator Has Recovered Almost 800,000 Gallons of Double-Shell Tank Space
WC Monitor
11/7/2014
The Hanford 242-A Evaporator has freed up space for almost 800,000 gallons of waste in Hanford’s double-shell tanks, but a planned follow-up campaign has been delayed. This was the first time the evaporator has been operated for four years, reducing liquid content to tank waste to allow more efficient use of the space in double shell tanks. Hanford’s 28 double-shell tanks, each with a capacity of about 1.1 million gallons, are nearing capacity, and the oldest one has developed an interior leak and plans have been made to empty it.
Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions planned to follow the work completed in October with a second campaign to reduce waste volume by 350,000 gallons. However, a pump failed that is needed to transfer waste to the double-shell tank that stages waste for the evaporator. Workers flushed the waste from the evaporator and shut it down. WRPS is making plans to restart the evaporator in a few months after repairs are made and waste can be transferred to the evaporator’s staging tanks.
Three Campaigns Planned for Fiscal Year 2015
WRPS plans three more evaporation campaigns after that in Fiscal Year 2015, said contractor spokesman John Britton. That will help create storage capacity for waste being retrieved in the C Tank Farm and for tanks in the A and AX Tank Farms that WRPS is preparing to empty next. It also helps make space available in case of an emergency that requires a tank to be emptied and to prepare for emptying Tank AY-102, the double-shell tank with an interior leak. In combination with the evaporator run workers recently completed, that should provide space equivalent to almost two double-shell tanks.
No one reported potential exposures to chemical vapors from the waste during the recent evaporator run, Britton said. Operating the evaporator required moving waste between two double-shell tanks, and disturbing waste can increase the chance that workers will smell chemical vapors. To protect workers, they were kept from some sidewalks and parking lots and monitoring was done.
Evaporator Began Operation in 1977
The recent evaporator run processed 2.2 million gallons of waste, evaporating off 791,000 gallons of liquid. The reduction required two passes through the evaporator. In the evaporator, liquid tank waste is heated under vacuum so it will evaporate at a temperature of about 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Water vapor from the boiling waste is captured, condensed, filtered and sent to the nearby Liquid Effluent Retention Facility for more treatment and disposal. The concentrated waste is returned to the double-shell tanks.
During the past four years, WRPS has worked on upgrades to the evaporator facility, including revamping the control room and changes to equipment and operating procedures. It also acquired spare parts and made some improvements recommended by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to help it better withstand a severe earthquake. In the past year alone, the evaporator has updated the 242-A Design Safety Analysis, undergone three cold runs without waste, three readiness assessments and made numerous corrective actions, according to WRPS. “Because of the crucial role the 242-A Evaporator plays in the safe management of the tank farms, we have prepared the facility for long-term operations,” said Brian Von Bargen, facility manager. “The evaporator will play a key role in the tank farms for decades to come.” Since the evaporator began operating in 1977, it has reduced the volume of waste in the double-shell tanks by about 68 million gallons.
