The Department of Energy is accepting comments about security at the Hanford Site as it updates the security section of its dangerous waste permit for the Washington state facility. The proposed update in the permit from the Washington state Department of Ecology spells out in detail the security measures in place, including signs, surveillance systems, and access controls.
“No trespassing” signs are posted around the perimeter of the main portion of the site, excluding what was historically used as the security zone. These include large signs along the Columbia River, along with signs prohibiting unauthorized personnel posted around the perimeter of individual work areas. Surveillance systems include roving patrols 24 hours a day and video monitoring. Access controls include barbed wire fences, locked gates, and staffed security barricades where workers enter the site.
Hanford has operated under a state dangerous waste permit issued since 1994, with occasional modifications to incorporate changes or updates. The permit sets conditions based on Washington state laws and regulations that control the treatment, storage, and disposal of dangerous wastes across the Hanford Site; it also addresses also security at the former plutonium production complex and current cleanup facility.
The update of the security language is intended to keep information in the permit current. The Energy Department is legally required to take public comment on major changes it proposes to the permit.
A public meeting on the updates to the permit is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Jan. 16 at the Richland Public Library. Comments may be submitted online until Feb. 11 to the Department of Ecology.
Fluor Idaho has spent roughly $7 million to date on expenses related to the April 11 accident in which four drums of radioactive waste sludge overheated and blew off their lids at the Idaho National Laboratory.
Spokesman Erik Simpson provided the figure in an Dec. 7 email responding to questions about Fluor Idaho’s efforts to prevent a similar episode in the future. It is perhaps the first time the lab’s cleanup contractor has publicly noted the cost of its cleanup and investigation into the incident. Neither a breakdown of the spending so far, or an estimate on total anticipated spending was immediately available.
Energy Department officials are expected around Dec. 21 to complete their review of Fluor Idaho’s recently submitted a post-incident corrective action plan. After DOE is through vetting the plan, and it is submitted to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Fluor Idaho will eventually be authorized to restart sludge repackaging at INL’s Waste Management Facility-1617. No date has been determined for the work to resume.
The sludge waste has been buried at INL for years after being shipped in from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver.
Fluor concluded, in a causal report made public in late October, the incident occurred after depleted uranium in the drums contacted air for the first time in decades. Much of the material ended up on the floors and walls of the facility and was subsequently cleaned up.
The analysis found greater care should have been taken in processing and repackaging the waste, while trying to detect potential combustion sources in the sludge.
No one was hurt in the incident in part because it happened after 10 p.m. when there were no employees inside the fabric filter building where the drums were located.
Fluor Idaho holds the five-year, $1.5 billion Idaho Cleanup Project Contract, which extends through May 2021.
