The Department of Energy says it, not Washington state, can decide whether to install “decontamination showers” for a radioactive waste disposal facility at the Hanford Site, the feds said in a recent appeal to a state administrative panel.
The Washington state Department of Ecology “does not have the authority to require Energy to install decontamination showers, either immediately or at the conclusion of an additional evaluation process,” DOE wrote in a June 29 appeal to Washington’s Pollution Control Hearings Board.
“Rather, Energy has the exclusive authority to regulate worker health and safety issues at Hanford—including determining when decontamination showers are necessary,” DOE said, citing both the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as amended as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
The state Ecology Department granted DOE a permit modification for Integrated Disposal Facility on May 30. But the federal agency balked at a section suggesting the state could require Hanford to install two decontamination showers, or at least submit information evaluating the need for such equipment.
To avoid a delay in the permit modification, DOE will under its own Atomic Energy Act authority, submit information to the state “demonstrating that the decontamination showers are not necessary to protect worker health and safety,” DOE said in the filing. The federal agency also wants the appeals board to hold its appeal in abeyance while the respective agencies evaluate the need for decontamination showers.
According to case files, the permit modification includes adding three dangerous waste management units: Operation of an additional disposal cell, a storage pad and a treatment pad.
None of the work planned around the areas in question would require access to decontamination showers, DOE said in its filing.
Showering is frequently mentioned as a means for individuals to minimize contamination following chemical or radioactive exposure.
The Hanford Integrated Disposal Facility, near the center of the Hanford Site, is designed to receive low-activity radioactive waste once it has been immobilized into a glass form at the Waste Immobilization and Treatment Plant being built by Bechtel. DOE currently envisions glass-making will start in 2025.
