The Department of Energy and its Central Plateau cleanup contractor at the Hanford Site have appealed a fine and order by the Washington state Department of Ecology over an unidentified white powder found on the floor and equipment of the PUREX processing plant.
The plutonium extraction plant was closed in the 1980s, with periodic walkthroughs conducted since then. In May 2015 workers inspecting the facility noted the white powder. The state agency issued a fine of $16,000 on Aug. 31 after trying for more than a year to get DOE and CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation to identify the powder.
The Energy Department argues the state does not have the authority to require the powder to be cleaned up if it is hazardous. It says the material is a Superfund Site issue, which would be federally regulated – the PUREX Plant is in Hanford’s 200 Area, one of four separate Superfund cleanup locations at the DOE facility.
The Department of Ecology says it has authority over the powder under its Hanford site-wide dangerous waste permit and also has power to regulate hazardous waste generation within the state.
The Department of Ecology has agreed to extend the first of three deadlines under the order until Nov. 30. The Energy Department and CH2M were previously required to sample the white powder by the end of October, but said they needed more time to collect multiple samples and get analysis results from an off-site lab. If the analysis shows the waste is hazardous, DOE is required to have a plan for cleanup by Nov. 15 and to complete cleanup by Jan. 29. No change has been made at this point to those deadlines.
The Washington state Pollution Control Hearings Board will hear the appeal, and has scheduled an evidentiary hearing for June 19-20. The order remains in effect in the meantime.
“If this powder is a dangerous waste, it’s important to clean it up before it spreads further,” John Price, compliance section manager for Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program, said in a prepared statement when the state agency issued the fine. “We want to avoid delays that cause a bigger cleanup with increased worker risks and higher costs.”
The PUREX Plant chemically processing fuel irradiated in Hanford’s reactors to produce a substantial portion of the nation’s plutonium for its nuclear weapons program. The waste storage tunnel that was discovered partially collapsed in May is adjacent to the plant, but the white powder is unrelated to the that incident.
