[NukeNet] Energy Dept Faulted for Mishandling Hanford Nuclear Waste

Wed Jul 16 05:04:44 EDT 2008

Energy Department Faulted for Mishandling Hanford Nuclear Waste

WASHINGTON, DC, July 14, 2008 (ENS) - The U.S. Department of Energy  
doesn't know enough about the condition and contents of millions of  
gallons of radioactive and hazardous wastes stored in tanks at its  
Hanford Site in Washington state to make good decisions about cleanup  
and costs, according to a new report by Congress's investigative agency.

The findings issued by the U.S. General Accountability Office are the  
latest in a string of critiques finding fault with the way the  
Department of Energy is handling Hanford, which GAO natural resources  
and development director Gene Aloise called "one of the most  
contaminated places on Earth."
Situated on 586 square miles along the Columbia River in southeastern  
Washington, upstream from the cities of Richland, Pasco and  
Kennewick, the Hanford Site was established in 1943 to produce  
plutonium for atomic bombs, as part of the government's top-secret  
Manhattan Project.
Hanford manufactured nuclear materials through 1989, a mission that  
left in its wake the world's largest environmental cleanup project.

Hanford tanks hold millions of gallons of highly radioactive waste.  
(Photo courtesy NASA)

Now, the Department of Energy is responsible for managing more than  
56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous waste stored in 149  
single-shell and 28 double-shell underground tanks.

Of those, 67 are confirmed or presumed to have already leaked about  
one million gallons of waste into the ground. In 2000, the estimated  
cost of tank waste cleanup was estimated at nearly $50 billion.

One of the agency's plans is to convert some of the most perilous  
radioactive waste into glass, a process called vitrification. But the  
process of conversion is stymied by the fact that some of the  
radioactive elements have formed "unknown compounds" while in storage.

The Energy Deparment has an agreement with the U.S. Environmental  
Protection Agency and state of Washington's Department of Ecology to  
remove waste from single-shelled tanks by the fall of 2018 and  
"immobilize" all tank waste by the end of 2028.

But the department is far behind schedule. By its latest estimate,  
according to the GAO report, waste treatment will not begin until  
late 2019 and it could continue to 2050 and beyond.

In its report issued June 30, the GAO recommended that the Department  
of Energy give priority to assessing the integrity of single-shelled  
tanks; quantify specific risks of continuing to use the tanks; and  
work with state and federal agencies on a realistic cleanup schedule.

In response, DOE said the recommendations were consistent with what  
it is already doing or plans to do, but disagreed that it lacks the  
knowledge to make informed decisions about the integrity of the tanks  
and retrieving and treating the waste.

Previous investigations by the GAO concluded that flaws in the  
Department of Energy's management of Hanford have led to higher  
costs, construction delays and safety concerns.

The Department of Energy's own inspector general found the  
department's oversight of the contaminated site to be disorganized  
and disjointed.

"Without a complete and integrated planning, budgeting, and  
management approach to the tank waste remediation project, the  
Department may be unable to control, predict, explain, or defend  
future changes to cost and schedule," the Office of Inspector General  
predicted in January 2000.

Wes Rehberg
Wild Clearing
http://www.wildclearing.com
http://www.contaminatedforever.com
skype: wildclearing; 423-285-8084

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