A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday asked the Government Accountability Office to review monitoring and maintenance of aging facilities at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state after the May 9 discovery of a breached waste tunnel.
“Fortunately, the collapse did not result in any injuries and no measureable release of radioactive or toxic materials into the atmosphere or the surrounding environment,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, this event raises several questions concerning the cleanup of facilities … which are not scheduled to be decontaminated and demolished in the near future.”
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was the lead signatory on the letter. It also was signed by Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the ranking member of the same committee; Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.); Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.); Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).
The lawmakers requested the GAO focus its review on the legacy infrastructure managed by Hanford’s Richland Operations Office, including contaminated equipment, facilities, waste sites, groundwater, soil, and other non-tank waste. Tank waste is the responsibility of Hanford’s other DOE office, the Office of River Protection.
“As work continues to complete cleanup along the Columbia River Corridor, a long list of cleanup activities remains outstanding on the Central Plateau, including remediation and demolition of more than 1,000 waste sites, 500 facilities, and contaminated soil and groundwater – much of which is highly contaminated with radioactive and toxic waste,” the letter said.
The letter asked for some information specific to the central Hanford Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant waste tunnel that was breached, a second tunnel with waste from the plant, and other PUREX facilities. The lawmakers want the GAO to review how the tunnels have been monitored, efforts to further stabilize the breached tunnel, and plans to remove the waste from both tunnels.
As an interim measure, the hole in the top of the oldest PUREX tunnel has been filled with a mixture of sand and gravel and a temporary plastic cover has been placed over the 360-foot-long tunnel. The Washington state Department of Ecology, a Hanford regulator, has directed DOE to by Oct. 1 submit a proposal for permanent cleanup of the breached tunnel and disposal of its waste.
The lawmakers also asked the GAO to conduct a broader review of the site’s aging infrastructure managed by the Richland Operations Office, most of it in central Hanford. They asked the GAO to look into plans to improve monitoring and evaluation of potential risks posed by old infrastructure, and requested information about the scope and schedule of remaining cleanup. They also want to know how DOE prioritizes Hanford remediation, both at the site and relative to other cleanup across the nationwide DOE complex.
