Hanford's Buried Nuclear Waste to Be Exhumed

WASHINGTON, DC, October 24, 2003 (ENS) - Buried nuclear waste from U.S. nuclear weapons production that was placed in retrievable storage at the Hanford Nuclear Facility in south central Washington state will be handled under an agreement reached Thursday between the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of Washington. The agreement comes after months of contentious negotiations between the parties.

The agreement would make changes to the M-91 milestone series of the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Compliance Agreement, also known as the Tri-Party Agreement.

"Fourteen years after the Tri-Party Agreement was first signed, we finally have cleanup milestones for the largest remaining block of waste at Hanford," said Washington State Department of Ecology Interim Director Linda Hoffman. "This is a tremendous win for Hanford and the people of Washington,"

The agreement would require the Department of Energy (DOE) to exhume and classify buried radioactive waste that was placed in retrievable storage between 1970 and 1988.

Digging up drums of buried radioactive waste at Hanford (Photo courtesy DOE)

Retrieved transuranic waste would be classified and placed in appropriate storage facilities pending its eventual shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in southeastern New Mexico.

Transuranic waste consists of clothing, tools, rags, residues, debris and other items contaminated with small amounts of radioactive elements - mostly plutonium. Transuranic waste began accumulating in the 1940s with the beginning of the U.S. nuclear weapons program. A synthetic byproduct of the nuclear weapons program, this waste remains radioactive for thousands of years.

The agreement calls for the parties to seek an expedited judicial resolution of their dispute regarding whether the state can require treatment of mixed transuranic waste destined for WIPP.

Should the state prevail in court, a set of milestones requiring treatment or certification of this waste for shipment to WIPP would go into effect.

The agreement separates the technical and jurisdictional issues associated with a March 10 directive issued by the state calling on the DOE to construct storage and treatment facilities for transuranic and transuranic mixed wastes, and an April 30 order directing the DOE to properly manage radioactive chemical wastes buried and retrievably stored in unlined trenches or otherwise generated at Hanford.

The DOE appealed both actions, and the state Department of Ecology (Ecology) issued a series of stays for a portion of the order pending the outcome of settlement negotiations.

Early on, the two agencies acknowledged that their dispute about the scope of the state's regulatory authority over mixed transuranic waste would have to be resolved in court, and legal proceedings are underway.

But the technical issues involving what the schedule should be for retrieving and characterizing the buried waste, and treating non-transuranic waste, probably could be resolved through negotiation, the two agencies said.

Jessie Roberson is the Energy Department's Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management. (Photo courtesy DOE)

"Despite this dispute, the cleanup of these wastes at Hanford continues to accelerate," said Roberson. "Since March, we have treated approximately 750 cubic meters of mixed low-level waste, sent 37 shipments of mixed and non-mixed transuranic waste to WIPP, and have already begun to retrieve and classify buried waste."

The agreement reached Thursday establishes the following key milestones:

• DOE will begin retrieving suspect transuranic waste retrievably stored in the low-level burial grounds by November 15, 2003.

• DOE will retrieve all contact-handled suspect transuranic waste retrievably stored in the low-level burial grounds by 2010.

• DOE will begin retrieving remote-handled transuranic waste retrievably stored in the low-level burial grounds by 2011.

• DOE will treat the backlog of mixed low-level waste currently in storage by 2009.

• DOE will begin treating remote-handled, mixed low-level waste by 2008.

• DOE will have the capability to treat remote-handled, mixed transuranic waste by 2012.

The agreement also specifies annual volume requirements to assure that adequate progress is being made on retrieval, characterization and treatment of the waste.

During the next 30 days, the parties will consult with area Tribes and the Hanford Advisory Board, followed by a public comment period. The complete agreement package will be available on the Hanford website, at: http://www.hanford.gov.

Subject to public comment, the milestones will be added to the Tri-Party Agreement that governs the Hanford cleanup effort.

"This agreement signals a return to a more cooperative and collaborative approach to the challenges presented by the cleanup of this complex site," said Keith Klein, manager of DOE's Richland Operations Office, which oversees the Hanford Site. "We have already demonstrated our ability to address these difficult cleanup issues."

"This settlement was a significant coming together of all parties involved to accelerate cleanup of this hazardous material," said Tom Sansonetti, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "This is clearly the best outcome for the environment and the Hanford Site."

A plutonium production complex with nine nuclear reactors and various processing facilities, Hanford played a pivotal role in the nation's defense for more than 40 years, beginning in the 1940s with the Manhattan Project.

Today, Hanford is engaged in the world's largest environmental cleanup project, complicated with overlapping technical, political, regulatory, financial and cultural issues.

Containing about 60 percent of the nation's high-level nuclear waste, the DOE lists physical challenges at the Hanford Site that include:

• more than 50 million gallons of high-level liquid waste in 177 underground storage tanks
  
• 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel
  
• 12 tons of plutonium in various forms
  
• 25 million cubic feet (750,000 cubic meters) of buried or stored solid waste
  
• 270 billion gallons (a trillion liters) of groundwater contaminated above drinking water standards

Spread out over about 80 square miles (208 square kilometers), there are more than 1,700 waste sites, and about 500 contaminated facilities at Hanford.

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