Hiding radioactive waste

Feds look to ship Wash. radioactive waste to New Mexico

Removing radioactive waste from underground tanks at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site has proven to be technologically vexing for years, and recent word that six tanks are leaking has only added pressure to the efforts to empty them.

SF Gate,

7 March, 2013

A portion of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is seen from the air, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, near Richland, Wash. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was in the area Wednesday to tour the facility and meet with Dept. of Energy officials in order to learn more about tanks on the site that are leaking radioactive waste. Photo: Ted S. Warren

A proposal to ship some of that waste to New Mexico to ultimately stem the leaks earned approval from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who called it the right step for south-central Washington's Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the state and the nation.

The proposal still requires approval from the two states, and Congress still must approve funding — likely pushing any shipments of waste two to four years into the future. But Inslee said he will push lawmakers to fully pay for the proposal, saying "every single dollar of it is justified."

Federal officials on Wednesday announced a proposal to ship some 3 million gallons of radioactive waste from Hanford for disposal in a massive repository — called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant — near Carlsbad, N.M., where radioactive materials are buried in rooms excavated in vast salt beds nearly a half-mile underground.

The waste near Carlsbad includes such things as clothing, tools and other debris.

The Hanford site sent the equivalent of about 25,000 drums of such so-called transuranic waste, which is radioactive but less deadly than the worst, high-level waste, to WIPP between 2000 and 2011.

The latest proposal would target transuranic waste in underground tanks that hold a toxic, radioactive stew of liquids, sludge and solids, but it would address only a fraction of the 56 million gallons of total waste in the tanks.

The proposal was quickly met with criticism from a New Mexico environmental group that said the state permit allowing the government to bury waste at the plant would not allow for shipments from Hanford.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said WIPP specifically prohibits such waste from Hanford and any proposal to modify permit language in this case would need "strong justification and public input."

"WIPP has demonstrated success in its handling of defense TRU waste," Udall said in a statement. "With regard to Hanford waste, I urge all parties involved to exhibit caution and scientific integrity to ensure that DOE is abiding by the law and that the waste classifications are justified."

Dave Huizenga, head of the Energy Department's Environmental Management program, said the transfer would not impact the safe operations of the New Mexico facility.

"This alternative, if selected for implementation in a record of decision, could enable the department to reduce potential health and environmental risk in Washington state," said Huizenga.

Don Hancock, of the Albuquerque-based watchdog group Southwest Research and Information Center opposing the transfer to New Mexico, said this is not the first time DOE has proposed bringing more waste to the plant near Carlsbad.

"This is a bad, old idea that's been uniformly rejected on a bipartisan basis by politicians when it came up in the past, and it's been strongly opposed by citizen groups like mine and others," Hancock said. "It's also clear that it's illegal."

Disposal operations near Carlsbad began in March 1999. Since then, more than 85,000 cubic meters of waste have been shipped to WIPP from a dozen sites around the country.

Any additional waste from Hanford would have to be analyzed to ensure it could be stored at the site because a permit issued by the New Mexico Environment Department dictates what kinds of waste and the volumes that can be stored there.

WIPP spokeswoman Deb Gill said the facility does not anticipate any problems with its existing capacity as permitted under law.

Officials estimate that some 7,000 to 40,000 drums of waste would be trucked to New Mexico, depending on how the waste is treated and its final form.