Long-anticipated talks between the Department of Energy and the Washington state Department of Ecology on cleanup issues at the Hanford Site should finally begin by early March.
The two sides have agreed on the scope of the talks, Ecology Nuclear Waste Program Manager Alex Smith said Wednesday during a meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board. The state and the federal agencies have also selected a federal mediator to help bridge their differences. “So there will be an adult in the room,” Smith added.
She did not detail any agenda items for the talks during her Wednesday presentation. Based on letters between the organizations last year, possible topics include vitrification of Hanford’s low-activity radioactive waste into glass at the Waste Treatment Plant, treatment alternatives for high-level waste, and plans for removing waste from old single-shell tanks. The Hanford Site is home to 56 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste stored in 177 underground storage tanks.
A state spokesperson said Friday a path forward for high-level waste treatment, the pace and timing of waste tank closures, and disposal of tank waste is expected to be on the agenda.
An Energy Department spokesman declined comment other than repeating the federal agency is looking forward to the discussions.
Energy Department Hanford Site Manager Brian Vance agreed last September to the negotiations that could lead to modifications of the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement that sets remediation targets for the former plutonium production complex. The state questions whether DOE can meet the agreed-upon deadlines for retrieving all waste from single-shell tanks by 2040 and treating all the waste by 2047.
The talks were initially sought starting in May 2019 by then-Ecology Director Maia Bellon, who threatened to take DOE to court without a mutually acceptable written plan for future work.
Bellon retired at the end of December and was replaced by Laura Watson, previously a senior assistant attorney general who worked on environmental issues for the state. Smith said the new director was being briefed Wednesday on the upcoming talks.
Smith told the advisory board that Heather Bartlett, an Ecology Department water quality program manager, has replaced the also-newly retired Polly Zehm as the agency’s deputy director.
