A Seattle-based advocacy group and a labor union at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state have agreed to revise a legal settlement and give the feds more time to implement engineering controls to protect workers from harmful vapors at the former plutonium production facility.
The controls, initially expected in 2021, should now be completed on Feb. 1, 2028, according to a press release last week from Hanford Challenge and the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598.
“This extension is necessary to allow more time for testing and implementing engineering controls to protect worker health and safety,” Hanford Challenge said in the release. In addition to granting more time, DOE and its Hanford Site contractors will make online postings to increase transparency and accountability, according to the release.
The revised settlement papers indicate it will be 2027 before DOE and the other parties finish testing a technology developed by NUCON International, formerly Nuclear Consulting Services, which is designed to use thermal oxidation and other means to capture or destroy tank vapor constituents.
The amendment is being made to a September 2018 settlement over a federal lawsuit brought to protect Hanford workers from headaches, nosebleeds and other maladies linked to vapors from Hanford’s underground radioactive waste tanks.
“We are hopeful that the renewed commitments will ultimately prevent vapor exposures and lead to a future for Hanford that prioritizes safety and accountability in cleanup efforts,” Hanford Challenge Executive Director Peterson said in last week’s release.
“This agreement represents our priority of transparency for our community and reaffirms our expectation for innovation and deployment of expanded engineering controls at the tank farms,” said Nickolas Bumpaous, Local 598 business manager.
The modification to the settlement agreement was recently filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington by DOE, the labor union, Hanford Challenge and contractor Washington River Nuclear Solutions.
