Staff Reports
WC Monitor
10/3/2014
The state of Washington has agreed to give the Department of Energy 18 more months to start emptying waste from the Hanford double-shell tank with a leaking inner shell. DOE and Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions are working to complete the planning, design and installation of equipment needed to start pumping waste from Tank AY-102 no later than March 4, 2016, and sooner if possible, DOE said in a statement this week. The state had ordered DOE to start emptying waste from the tank Sept. 1, which did not happen. But the state agreed this week that more time is needed to prepare for the start of retrieval to prevent the creation of possible hazardous conditions within the tank. The agreement settles DOE’s appeal of the state’s administrative order to pump the tank issued in March. “Modeling demonstrated that health and safety considerations outweigh potential environmental risks,” said Jane Hedges, manager of the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program.
DOE and WRPS have the infrastructure in place to start retrieving the liquid waste in the tank. As of this spring, the tank had 235 inches of liquid waste sitting above 55 inches of waste in the form of sludge. But DOE had told the state that it would not have equipment in place and be prepared to start also removing the sludge any sooner than March 2016. It was concerned about emptying significant amounts of liquid waste long before sludge would be retrieved because the liquid helps cool the sludge, which generates heat. If the sludge heated up, more flammable gas could be generated and the risk of corrosion would increase, DOE said. It backed up that concern by following a Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommendation to model what would happen within the tank if liquid was pumped from it. Modeling showed that liquid removal was a safety concern, Hedges said. If the ventilation system in the tank were to fail after liquid had been pumped, the waste could heat up quickly. Tank ventilation systems have failed in the past, she said. In addition, DOE went over its detailed work plans to prepare to empty the sludge from the tank with state experts, who agreed that the DOE needed more time to get infrastructure in place to empty sludge, Hedges said.
DOE Has Three Extra Months to Empty Tank
Now DOE will be allowed to wait until shortly before pumping sludge to start pumping liquid waste from the double-shell tank, according to a settlement agreement released early this week just before it was to be filed with the state Pollution Control Hearings Board. The state also agreed to give DOE three more months to finishing pumping waste from the tank, extending that deadline from Dec. 1, 2016, to March 4, 2017. Because of the delay now being allowed to start emptying liquid waste from the tank, the state is requiring robust contingency planning, Hedges said. DOE has 30 days to submit a plan to the state on how it will respond and recover from any worsening conditions in the tank. Now the waste is believed to be contained between the shells of the tank, rather than leaking into the soil beneath the tank. DOE has estimated that the tank, which has a capacity of 1 million gallons, is losing about 30 ounces of waste a week from its inner tank. The state also is requiring continued monitoring of conditions within the primary tank, the secondary tank and the leak detection pit underneath the tank.
Agreement Includes Potential Penalties
The agreement includes penalties that start at $500 per day for issues such as missing the deadline to supply the contingency plan or for other delays in providing inspection reports or notifications of safety issues. Failing to start retrieving liquid waste from the tank by March 4, 2016, or failing to have it emptied a year later could result in a fine of $5,000 for the first week of delay, increasing to $7,500 for each week after that. The agreement was criticized by Heart of America Northwest, which said it had “grave concerns” about allowing DOE more time to start emptying Tank AY-102. “Federal and state laws require that leaking tanks of any toxic waste must be emptied immediately,” said the group’s executive director, Gerald Pollet. The state should have penalized DOE for its failure to start emptying the tank, after knowing it had an interior leak almost two years ago, it said. DOE confirmed waste was leaking in October 2012 and the state issued its administrative order when DOE had not committed to emptying the tank by March 2014.
