Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) late last week released a set of documents that raise new concerns over the status of Hanford’s double-shell waste tanks and called on the Department of Energy to prepare within 45 days a plan for “responding to the increased safety and operational risks” associated with “flaws” in the tanks. Engineering reviews raise questions over the condition of 19 of Hanford’s double-shell tanks that hold a total of 16 million gallons of radioactive waste, Wyden said in a Feb. 28 letter to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. According to Wyden, reviews performed last summer found that six tanks had “significant construction flaws” similar to Hanford’s AY-102 tank, which has been found to have waste leaking between its inner and outer shells. Another 13 tanks have been found to be in better shape than AY-102, but still have “uncertainty” over their long-term integrity, Wyden wrote. “It is time for the Department to stop hiding the ball and pretending that the situation at Hanford is being effectively managed,” Wyden wrote. “The citizens living along banks of the Columbia River deserve to know the full story of what is happening with the Hanford tanks and they deserve to know what DOE is going to do to protect them from this treat.”
In a statement, a DOE spokesman said the Department and Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions had performed video inspections of the six tanks with construction histories similar to the damaged AY-102 tank and “confirmed that those tanks are still sound at this time.” The DOE spokesman added, “As part of ORP’s [the DOE Office of River Protection’s] due diligence, video inspections will be completed on the other double-shell tanks as soon as practicable.”
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), whose district includes Hanford, said late last week that Wyden had not released any “new” information. “There is no new threat to our communities or our environment. It’s no secret that Hanford tanks were never designed to last forever. It is also no secret that it is critical for the federal government to be aggressive when it comes to work at WTP [the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant] and the Tank Farms,” Hastings said in a statement. ““Frankly, there is nothing new here and it’s important to keep situations like AY-102 in perspective within the broader context of Hanford cleanup, including WTP, tank retrievals, groundwater remediation, and other components.”
