Moratorium on shipping radioactive waste to Hanford broadened

Moratorium on shipping radioactive waste to Hanford broadened
Annette Cary;Herald staff writer
Cary Annette
28 October 2009
Tri-City Herald
(c) 2009 The Tri-City Herald. All Rights Reserved.

The Department of Energy is adding another type of radioactive waste to those that won’t be sent to Hanford until the vitrification plant is fully operational.
Tuesday, DOE prepared a statement saying that even though its agreement with Washington and Oregon did not cover greater-than-class-C low-level radioactive waste, “this waste will not be imported to Hanford for the duration of the moratorium that defers the importation of waste to Hanford.”
Greater-than-class-C low, or GTCC, waste is more radioactive than the waste Hanford now is burying in its landfill for radioactive waste, the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility.
As part of a proposed settlement with the states over a lawsuit brought against DOE, DOE had agreed to recommend in a draft environmental study not to import certain kinds of waste to Hanford until the vit plant is operating to treat high level radioactive tank waste. That’s expected to be about 2022. Federal law requires the environmental study before a final decision on the moratorium is made.

The proposed moratorium originally requested by the state of Washington covered only those wastes that DOE had already made a decision to send to Hanford. They included low-level radioactive waste, some mixed with hazardous chemicals, that could be buried in a Hanford landfill for low-level waste. They also included transuranic waste, typically waste contaminated with plutonium, that DOE had planned to send to Hanford for storage.
It did not cover GTCC radioactive waste because DOE has not made a decision yet on where it will be sent for disposal, according to the state of Washington. A separate environmental study is being done on that, which considers Hanford among several other sites.
The waste includes both waste from commercial operations, such as decommissioning nuclear power plants and sterilizing medical equipment, and some DOE waste from nonweapons work that is contaminated with manmade isotopes heavier than uranium.
Why the proposed settlement agreement did not include a moratorium on importing GTCC waste was an issue at the first public hearing on the settlement agreement Monday night in Hood River. Tuesday night a second public hearing was planned in Portland and a message on a Hanford-themed internet board urged people to attend what it called a hearing on GTCC waste.
DOE emphasized the meetings have nothing to do with GTCC waste because it is not part of the proposed agreement with the states.
A third meeting will be held Thursday at the Hampton Inn in Richland to discuss the settlement agreement. The agreement would extend deadlines for emptying radioactive waste from leak-prone underground tanks and for treating the waste to dates that DOE and the state of Washington believe are realistic.
The meeting will start with an open house at 6 p.m. followed by the formal meeting at 7 p.m.
w Annette Cary: 582-1533; acary @tricityherald.com; more Hanford news at hanfordnews.com.
Document TRIC000020091029e5as0000a