After about four years of talks and 185 public comments, two federal agencies and Washington state have blessed an amended 15-year plan for treating radioactive waste at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site.
In a press release, the agencies reiterated they are sticking with the August 2025 deadline for starting to solidify some of the lower-level radioactive waste into a glass form, and a 2033 deadline for taking the same step with high-level waste.
DOE, Washington’s Department of Ecology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced late Friday the legal document modifying many Tri-Party Agreement and consent decree milestones for cleaning up 56 million gallons of liquid radioactive and hazardous waste.
The waste is left over from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War.
The final revised blueprint for dealing with the waste, held in 177 underground tanks, is the end result of what came to be known as the “holistic” negotiations between the parties, which started in 2020. In May the parties announced the general terms of the agreement, which they deemed safe and realistic. Since then the document has been the subject of extensive public comment and public meetings.
Importantly, DOE plans to decide by the end of 2025 where to grout some of the low-level radioactive waste that will not go through the Bechtel-built Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. Some municipalities want the affected liquid waste grouted on or near the Hanford Site before being moved over public roads to disposal sites in Texas or Utah.
“I think that public interest groups, Tribes and Oregon are all severely disappointed in key aspects of the agreement,” said Gerry Pollet, executive director of the Heart of America Northwest, a citizens group. Critics would prefer commitment to a full environmental impact statement about trucking pre-grouted liquid waste across the country, he said.
Also under the agreement, DOE will not seek to impose its 2020 reinterpretation of what constitutes high-level waste at the Hanford Site.
“We are encouraged by several aspects of the final agreement, particularly the delay of the final grout decision,” said Nikolas Peterson, executive director of the citizen group, Hanford Challenge. “This delay allows for a more thorough review and provides the opportunity for formal input on parts of the grouting proposal through the NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] Supplement Analysis comment period,” Peterson said via email Thursday.
“Cleaning up Hanford’s tank waste is critical for Washington state,” Ecology director Laura Watson said in a press release. With this final agreement, we’ve created a durable framework that will accelerate work while maintaining safety.”
