After being criticized for foot-dragging, the Department of Energy and Washington state announced an agreement Aug. 25 to address two leaking underground radioactive tanks at the Hanford Site, as well as future tank leaks.
Under a binding order, the federal agency and the Washington Department of Ecology agreed by 2028 to cover the site’s T and B tank farms with surface barriers to prevent rain or snow from seeping into the tanks, and to slow any migration of tank waste toward groundwater.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management will also seek ways to speed waste retrieval from single-shell tanks T-111, leaking since 2013, and B-109, leaking since at least April 2021, the agencies said in a joint press release.
The DOE will consider installation of a ventilation system around B-109. The regulators will also draft a response plan for future leaks, according to the press release. A copy of the full order is available online.
The DOE is first supposed to submit a “leak response plan” for the two current single-shell leaks. The plan could then be adapted for future leaks at other tanks, according to the order. September 2028 is the deadline for construction of the surface barriers at the two current leaking tanks. By the end of August 2024, DOE and the state hope to have agreed upon new milestone dates for retrieval of tanks T-111 and B-109.
“It’s been a priority for the state of Washington to address leaking tanks in a way that protects nearby communities and the Columbia River,” Washington Ecology director Laura Watson said in the press release.
Not everyone is a fan of the new agreement, however.
“Hanford Challenge is disappointed with this Agreed Order because we don’t think it does enough to address the threat from leaking tanks in a timely manner,” the executive director of the advocacy group, Nikolas Peterson said in a Thursday email.
“However, the reality is that until there is somewhere else to empty these leaking tanks to, the parties don’t have any good options,” Peterson said. “This is why Hanford Challenge has been calling for new tanks for at least a decade,”
Washington state Rep. Gerry Pollet (D), a lawyer who heads Heart of America Northwest advocacy group, has accused DOE of sitting on its hands about the leak at B-109.
Pollet on Aug. 25 dubbed the DOE-state agreement a dud, saying in a press release the deal would allow high-level waste to continue leaking “for years.”
State and federal hazardous waste laws already require any leaking hazardous waste tank to “have all leak-able liquids removed immediately,” Pollet said.
Much of the drainable liquid was removed from the two tanks in the 1980s and 1990s, according to a Washington Department of Ecology website.
Presentations on the tank order will be made during October meetings of the Hanford Advisory Board and Oregon Hanford Advisory Board, a spokesperson with the Washington Ecology Department said this week.
Ultimately there will be permit proceedings on individual components of the tank order, such as the leak response plan and designs for the interim surface barriers, the state spokesperson said.
There is roughly 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste at Hanford, left over from decades of plutonium production. The waste is held in 177 underground tanks: 149 single-shell tanks and 28 double-shell tanks.
