Hanford put on dump site list

Aug 24 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Scott Learn The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

The Hanford Nuclear Reservation is on the federal government's short list of sites for storing radioactive waste that could include contaminated metal from more than 100 U.S. nuclear plants.

The waste, classified as low level, also includes radioactive detritus from medical procedures and research projects. But by far the most radioactive components would be waste from decommissioned nuclear plants and from the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y., where the government is cleaning up a former nuclear fuel reprocessing center.

The amount of radiation in the inventory of current and projected waste is 140 million curies, equal to the contamination estimated from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown, or about three-quarters of the radiation contained in 177 leak-prone underground tanks at Hanford.

Oregon regulators and environmental groups are sounding alarms in advance of a public meeting on the proposal Monday in Troutdale.

Ken Niles, assistant director of the Oregon Department of Energy, calls Hanford's inclusion "ludicrous" given widespread contamination at Hanford, its proximity to the Columbia River and a cleanup at the former plutonium production site that is expected to cost $50 billion or more.

Under orders from Congress, the U.S. Department of Energy is trying to find a place for a projected 200,000 cubic feet of waste to fill a hole in the nation's controversy-ridden disposal system.

The waste is the most radioactive in the low-level category. Federal officials concede that some of it is as radioactive as high-level waste, which includes spent nuclear fuel. The inventory also contains "transuranic waste," often contaminated with plutonium and likely to remain radioactive for thousands of years.

Seven other sites are in the running, including the Yucca Mountain Repository in Nevada, not yet open, and the Idaho National Lab, a research site undergoing its own cleanup.

Christine Gelles, the DOE's leader on the project, said the waste could be split among several sites. The department is gathering information for an environmental impact statement and is not leaning toward one site or another, she said. Public comments are due by Sept. 21. Congress will have to approve a final plan.

The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb. The reservation ultimately housed nine reactors to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Along the way, radioactive iodine was released to drift with the wind. Contamination remains in the soil and ground water.

Hanford and five other sites are candidates for burying the waste in trenches, vaults or boreholes, according to the DOE proposal. Two sites, including Yucca Mountain, are candidates for deep burial.

Oregon Energy Department officials say shipping to Hanford would be a big mistake. In 2005, the agency urged the feds not to consider near-surface burial or disposing waste at sites undergoing cleanup.

"Both of those recommendations were ignored," Niles said. The federal government isn't safely managing the waste already on the site, Niles said in an e-mail alert this week.

New waste coming into Hanford, including reactor compartments from nuclear submarines, is a relative trickle now, he said. "Adding more waste -- especially waste that is highly radioactive and long-lived -- is contradictory to the cleanup effort that we all support."

Washington's Department of Ecology, which successfully fought to prevent the import of another category of low-level waste three years ago, is studying the latest proposal, spokeswoman Sharon Braswell said. But the state is "concerned about any activity that would distract from or delay the cleanup at Hanford."

Watchdog groups, including Heart of America Northwest and Columbia Riverkeeper, issued warnings about the plan.

Greg deBruler, Riverkeeper's Hanford technical consultant, called the proposal "the most ill-conceived I have seen in 20 years working on Hanford cleanup issues."

Gerry Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest, said it appears the government is targeting Hanford or the Nevada Test Site north of Las Vegas for the disposal, given obstacles at other sites on DOE's list. "It's like you've got a huge target on your back when you're living in the Northwest."