The Washington state Department of Ecology is giving the Department of Energy more time to submit a proposal for safe storage of radioactive waste in the Hanford Site’s two PUREX Plant tunnels.
The deadline to submit the information in the form of a draft modification to the Hanford RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) dangerous waste permit has been extended from Oct. 2 to Dec. 8.
The tunnels for decades have stored railcars loaded with highly contaminated equipment from the Plutonium Uranium Extraction Plant, which during the Cold War recovered plutonium as part of the Hanford Site’s work to provide the material for U.S. nuclear weapons. Tunnel 1 was found to have partially collapsed in May, and Tunnel 2 was determined shortly afterward to be at “high” risk of collapse.
As part of a revised legal order issued on Sept. 15 by the state, DOE must have a plan to stabilize Tunnel 2 by Dec 8. The department and its contractor, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co., took steps immediately when the collapse of the shorter PUREX tunnel was discovered on May 9. The breach was filled with soil and sand, a plastic cover was laid over the length of the tunnel, and work to fill the tunnel with concrete-like grout is expected to start soon.
The state had expected a proposal on stabilizing Tunnel 2 by an Aug. 1 deadline. Instead, DOE said it would increase monitoring while it convened a panel of experts to consider options for stabilizing the tunnel. “We don’t want to delay urgent work on the tunnel, but it’s important stabilization plans are developed for both tunnels,” said Stephanie Schleif, facility transition project manager for the Department of Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program, on Sept. 15.
The Energy Department said in a statement that the “Richland Operations Office appreciates the additional time to complete the corrective actions under the administrative order.”
