Feds notify Washington, Oregon of more Hanford cleanup delays

Published 5:00 am Saturday, June 8, 2013

YAKIMA, Wash. — The federal government has notified officials in Washington and Oregon that it is at serious risk of missing two cleanup deadlines at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, marking a potential new round of setbacks for the struggling cleanup there.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee expressed disappointment with the latest delays at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, saying the U.S. Department of Energy has yet to justify them or propose a new path forward.

“We expect the federal government to do everything within its power to avoid or minimize any possible delays in meeting all its legal and moral requirements to protect the health of our residents and the Columbia River,” Inslee said in a statement Friday.

Inslee also said the state would be evaluating its options to ensure federal cleanup commitments are met.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz called Inslee on Thursday to notify him of the latest developments. Inslee and the Energy Department made the news public on Friday.

The department notified the states about the potential for missed deadlines out of an abundance of caution and continues to work with cleanup contractors to try to mitigate the factors that contributed to them, spokeswoman Lindsey Geisler said in a statement.

The federal government created the Hanford site in the 1940s as part of the top-secret project to build the atomic bomb. Today, it is the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, with cleanup expected to last decades.

A 1989 agreement that governs the cleanup has been amended numerous times over the years. The agreement establishes deadlines for a long list of activities, including tearing down contaminated buildings, treating contaminated groundwater and emptying underground tanks of highly radioactive waste.

In 2010, the Energy Department entered into a legally binding consent decree after Washington state sued over repeated missed deadlines. That decree established deadlines for emptying 19 of Hanford’s 177 aging underground tanks, which hold 56 million gallons of highly radioactive waste.

Many of Hanford’s tanks have leaked in the past, and the Energy Department announced earlier this year that six tanks are currently leaking outside their shells. A seventh, a sturdier double-shell tank, is also leaking into the space between the two walls.

Ten tanks have been emptied. Another five are scheduled to be emptied by Sept. 30, 2014, but the Energy Department said that deadline is likely to be missed for two of those tanks.

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