The Washington state government and others asked new Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to rescind the Department of Energy’s recent decision to reclassify some high-level waste, including waste in the Hanford Site’s underground tanks.
On Friday, less than a day after Granholm’s swearing in, the Washington Department of Ecology, Washington Attorney General Robert Ferguson (D), the Yakama Indian Nation and three Hanford watchdog organizations formally requested that the new DOE boss rescind administrative changes made just before inauguration day that essentially activated an interpretive rule from 2019 that lets the feds redesignate some high-level radioactive wastes leftover from nuclear-weapons production.
The change could allow Hanford to fill some tanks with cement-like grout instead of converting the liquid waste inside into more stable glass cylinders — an expensive process that could take decades. By law, DOE may reclassify only waste from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel for defense activities. The agency believes it can lower the nation’s nuclear cleanup bill by doing so, with most of the prospective savings coming from Hanford.
Hanford has 56 million gallons of highly radioactive wastes in 177 leak-prone underground tanks a few miles from the Columbia River. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and Ferguson protested against the rule change when it occurred in 2019.
“We believe this rule lays the groundwork for the Department to abandon significant amounts of radioactive waste in Washington State precipitously close to the Columbia River, which is the lifeblood of the Pacific Northwest, creating a long-term risk of harm to the residents of the Pacific Northwest and the natural resources critical to the region,” the state government and the citizens groups wrote in their letter.
The letter also said that DOE incorporated that 2019 interpretive rule — allowing high-level wastes to be reclassified — within DOE Order 435.1-1 on Jan. 19, the day before President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Hanford Challenge, Columbia Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council are the three watchdog organizations joining the state and Yakama nation in requesting that the 2019 order be rescinded.
