Nation's Most Ambitious Project To Clean Up Nuclear Weapons Waste Has Stalled At Hanford

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Los Angeles Times: The Energy Department's most environmentally important and technically ambitious project to clean up Cold War nuclear weapons waste has stalled, putting at jeopardy an already long-delayed effort to protect the Columbia River in central Washington. In a terse letter last week, state officials said the environmental project is at risk of violating key federal court orders that established deadlines after past ones were repeatedly missed. Two multibillion-dollar industrial facilities intended to turn highly radioactive sludge into solid glass at the Hanford nuclear site have been essentially mothballed. Construction was halted in 2012 because of design flaws and Energy Department managers have foundered in finding alternatives, according to the letter that threatens new litigation.

The department has committed to removing and disposing all of the underground tank waste by 2047, though Washington's Department of Ecology director Maia Bellon said the state doesn't think that is possible at current funding levels. The six-page letter was addressed to Anne White, chief of environmental management at the Energy Department. The Times obtained the letter from Hanford Challenge, a watchdog group that has closely monitored the contaminated facility. 'This is clearly setting the table for litigation,' said Tom Carpenter, executive director of the group. 'The Energy Department is going to miss all of these deadlines.' Carpenter noted that in February, the Energy Department issued a new cost estimate to remediate the entire Hanford site, taking it from $110 billion to as much as $660 billion, a cost increase that has staggered Congress and has fueled sentiment to cut short the cleanup goals. 'They are walking away from important elements of the cleanup,' he said. Bellon has a two-part proposal for the Energy Department to consider. 'First, there would be a new round of negotiations over the next six to nine months,' the report says. 'Second, the state wants a low-level treatment system operating by no later than 2023, full production of high-level waste glass by 2036 and renewed commitments to removing all tank waste.'

If the Energy Department doesn't accept the state's proposal or the negotiation does not result in an acceptable cleanup program, the state 'reserves our right' to pursue action in court, Bellon said in the letter.

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