Washington Gov. Jay Inslee along with state Attorney General Bob Ferguson voiced their opposition Thursday to the Energy Department’s decision to reinterpret the definition of high-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Site and elsewhere in the weapons complex.
Washington currently holds 60% of the nation’s high-level waste with 56 million gallons stored in 177 underground storage tanks at Hanford, the state officials noted. They claim the Donald Trump administration is “opening the door for the federal government to walk away from its obligation to clean up millions of gallons of toxic, radioactive waste at Hanford,” which DOE denies.
The Energy Department says it is reinterpreting the definition of HLW, so that less radioactive waste in that category could conceivably qualify for treatment as either transuranic or low-level radioactive waste. Undersecretary of Energy for Science Paul Dabbar said this week all current legal commitments, including the Tri-Party Agreement between DOE, Washington state, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be met.
“The Trump Administration is showing disdain and disregard for state authority with these actions,” said Inslee, one of more than 20 candidates for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Washington Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon wrote to Dabbar Wednesday asking DOE to continue negotiating to find a mutually acceptable solution.
“I am surprised that DOE is considering taking this unilateral action” without consent or real consultation with the states, Bellon said in the letter.
The Energy Department “needs to comply with, not defy the law in order to protect current and future generations,” Tom Carpenter, the director of the Hanford Challenge citizens group said in a statement. Keeping high-level waste at Hanford indefinitely is not a long-term solution given its proximity to earthquake faults and a major river system, he said.
But some officials around the Hanford Site support the HLW reinterpretation by DOE.
The Hanford Communities organization, which advocates for environmental remediation at the site, said it agrees the proper interpretation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 is that not all radioactive waste from fuel reprocessing is HLW. The group agrees with DOE’s decision to focus more on radiological characterization and less on the source.
“What we think this means to us is that some tank waste, which must meet [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] requirements, can be sent off site for disposal long before the Waste Treatment plant is fully operational, said Richland Mayor Bob Thompson, chairman of Hanford Communities.
Further, the Energy Department this year said it will cost $677 billion to get the site fully cleaned up by 2079. “It is not realistic to assume Congress will provide $11 billion for 60 more years,” Hanford Communities said in a statement. The entire DOE budget for addressing all 16 national Cold War sites for fiscal 2019 is less than that, at $7.2 billion.
