Spokane mayor cool to idea of liquid waste transport from Hanford

The Department of Energy should not move Hanford Site liquid radioactive waste through Spokane, Wash., on its way to disposal sites in Texas or Utah, the mayor of Spokane told the Hanford Advisory Board Wednesday 

“I am quite concerned about the plan to transport liquid waste through our city,” enroute to Waste Control Specialists in Texas and EnergySolutions in Utah, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown (D) said during the board’s public comment segment. 

The Hanford Advisory Board met this week in Spokane.

Brown opposes liquid radioactive waste shipments through her city, Washington’s second largest, by either truck or rail. The mayor said DOE is looking to move 2,000 gallons of Hanford tank waste through Spokane before it is solidified into grout form as part of the Test Bed Initiative demonstration project. DOE says the liquid waste would be pretreated to remove cesium and other radionuclides.

Brown shares misgivings previously expressed by Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) and tribal governments about liquid waste shipments through the Pacific Northwest and told the board that DOE should not haul liquid radioactive waste through localities without more stakeholder engagement and a full environmental impact statement.

Brown’s remarks were seconded by Gerry Pollet, a Democratic Washington state representative who heads Heart of America Northwest, a Hanford watchdog group. Pollet reiterated his support of a concrete-like grout as an auxiliary way to solidify some of the less radioactive waste that will not be solidified by Hanford’s multi-billion-dollar Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant, which is tentatively due to open in 2025. But Pollet said there is no need to ship waste cross-county in liquid form when it could be grouted close to home at the Perma-Fix facility in Richland, Wash.

“Hanford plans to remove more than 98% of the radioactivity from the waste before shipment,” DOE said in a fact sheet about transport of the Ted Bed Initiative liquid. The waste would be moved in containers approved by the Department of Transportation for transport of radioactive material, according to the fact sheet.

During this week’s advisory board meeting, DOE’s Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance said the test bed shipments could occur around March 2025.

Some advisory board members said during the two-day meeting they don’t like the idea of Hanford liquid tank waste, prior to being grouted, hitting the road to Texas or Utah.

The state of Oregon voiced concern over liquid waste shipments in August comments on the so-called holistic agreement between Washington, DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agreement said long term several tanks of low-level liquid waste could be grouted as an alternative to a second vitrification plant.

As for longer-term grouting of liquid waste, possibly starting around 2028, DOE has not yet decided if it “will be grouted at a facility on the Hanford Site or off-site at a commercial facility,” the head of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, Candice Robertson. Robertson’s comment came in a July 26 letter to the Oregon governor. 

Robertson’s letter was included as part of Oregon’s comment package on the holistic agreement. Robertson also said DOE has a long history of safely moving radioactive waste including liquid waste.