The Washington state Department of Ecology on Thursday issued a $16,000 penalty against the Department of Energy and one of its contractors for failing to identify white powder found during the last two annual inspections of the Hanford Site’s PUREX Plant.
The state requires annual detailed inspections of the plant, outlining specific routes through the facility that inspectors must follow, to look for contamination migration, suspected hazardous materials, inadequate housekeeping, and other hazards. The white powder is not related to the partial collapse of a PUREX Plant waste disposal tunnel discovered May 9.
The state tried to get DOE and one of its cleanup primes at Hanford, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., to identify the white powder for more than a year, according to the Department of Ecology. “If this powder is a dangerous waste, it’s important to clean it up before it spreads further,” said John Price, compliance section manager for Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program.
The Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, or PUREX, was one of five plants built at Hanford to chemically process irradiated uranium to remove plutonium for use in U.S. nuclear weapons. It processed about 75 percent of the plutonium produced at Hanford before halting operations in 1988.
During an inspection in May 2015, CH2M workers noted the white powder on the floor and equipment on three of the seven routes they followed through the interior of the plant. The Department of Ecology conducted its annual record review of PUREX inspections in June 2016, noting that no plan had been made for the powder. In November 2016 it issued a state inspection report, citing a violation and requiring a sampling plan for the powder to be submitted to the state within 60 days.
The Energy Department responded with a letter in February 2017, saying “the white powder is in a safe and stable condition within the confines of PUREX, has not been released to the environment, and does not constitute a threat to human health and the environment.” DOE said it intended to leave the powder until such future time as PUREX is remediated.
Ecology warned DOE in April that it could issue a fine if the agency and CH2M did not determine whether the powder constituted hazardous waste. Another annual inspection of the plant had been conducted in December 2016, with CH2M workers again reporting the powder.
The powder still had not been sampled by Thursday, so, the Department of Ecology issued the $16,000 fine and ordered DOE and CH2M to take further steps. By Oct. 31 they must determine if the powder is a hazardous waste. If that is the case, they have until Nov. 15 to submit a recovery plan. The Department of Ecology also ordered Hanford officials to remove the powder if it is hazardous within 60 to 90 days of Oct. 31. Officials can ask to extend the 60-day deadline by 30 days if the waste is difficult to recover.
“I don’t think any of us is surprised anymore when new potential hazards are identified at Hanford, but it is important to identify what these hazards are,” Price said. The Energy Department said in a statement Thursday it was evaluating the state notice as it determines next steps in the matter.
A white powder also was found on the floor of another of Hanford’s processing plants, REDOX, during an annual inspection in late 2012. According to a weekly staff report for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the powder was determined to be sodium chloride, or salt. Salt was used to neutralize the processing system after it was shut down in 1967 and appeared to be corroding through the stainless-steel process piping. The Environmental Protection Agency, rather than the state Department of Ecology, regulates REDOX.
