The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped state-federal “holistic” negotiations over major environmental remediation issues at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
The talks between DOE, the state, and the Environmental Protection Agency are occurring remotely, Washington state Department of Ecology spokesman Randy Bradbury said in an Aug. 11 email.
The talks began in the first quarter of this year. A remote meeting, the third such session, was happening Friday and the state is willing to hold as many meetings as it takes to get a deal, Bradbury said in a Thursday email.
The state agency hopes they will hasten progress on key cleanup work at Hanford, such as retirement of aging single-shell tanks filled with radioactive waste.
The parties indicated last year they are working with a federal mediator and, if the talks are successful, they could make revisions to the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement that governs cleanup at the former plutonium production complex.
“The parties have had productive sessions,” Bradbury said. “However, they cover a lot of subject matter, and involve a number of people at three different agencies.” Given those factors, and the ongoing health crisis, the process is “taking a long time to schedule, arrange and conduct,” he added.
“That’s about all we can say about it now, as the parties have agreed not to disclose any negotiation specifics” until the process is finished, Bradbury wrote. He did immediately know how many sessions have occurred or when they are expected to conclude.
The Energy Department was even more reticent. “Discussions are proceeding,” a DOE spokesperson said by email Tuesday.
In May 2019, then-Ecology Director Maia Bellon, now retired, called for talks over several nuclear cleanup issues at Hanford – including discussions about the schedule for vitrification of much of the 56 million gallons of low-activity and high-level radioactive waste at the Waste Treatment Plant being built by Bechtel.
A federal court order requires the Energy Department to begin converting low-activity tank waste into glass by the end of 2023, and do the same thing for high-level waste in 2036.
The state and federal agencies are signatories to the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement that set cleanup milestones at the former plutonium production complex. The state has accused DOE of foot-dragging on a number of issues, particularly retrieving waste from old single-shell tanks, and has threatened to take DOE to court to force faster remediation.
In February 2019, the Energy Department reported that full Hanford cleanup could cost anywhere from $323 billion to $677 billion and might be completed sometime between 2064 and 2079.
