Hanford

In the summer of 2006, a little over a year ago, some of you know I visited Hanford, obtaining a "seat on the bus" of one of Department of Energy's bus tours.

It was eye-opening in many ways. I'd read a lot about the facility but hadn't appreciated how incredibly huge it was, in terms of acreage. It takes a couple of hours to drive from one end to the other. But the other thing that was apparent was the amount of money spent by the federal government to clean up that place, and not much has been done for those billions of dollars.

This year, Department of Energy has announced that Hanford is one of the sites where they're considering dumping new hazardous wastes from nuclear activities elsewhere.

Last Monday was a public meeting in Oregon about this proposed reclassification of Hanford's mission. As reported in a Tri-Counties newspaper, Oregon's public officials (and many citizens)are opposed to this. Citizens around Hanford, however, continue to be enamored with the amount of money they get from the federal government and seem not to be concerned about this. I attach a Tri-Counties news article about the Portland meeting. It was contentious.

Crowd says no to more waste at Hanford

Published Tuesday, August 28th, 2007

ANNETTE CARY HERALD STAFF WRITER TROUTDALE, Ore. -- A standing-room-only crowd near Portland had a clear message for the Department of Energy on Monday night: Send no more radioactive waste to the Hanford nuclear reservation. It's different than the usual "not in my backyard," said Ken Niles, assistant director of the Oregon Department of Energy. "We're saying no more in our backyard because it is so horribly contaminated already," he said.

DOE is looking at Hanford as one option for disposing of an estimated 7,280 cubic yards of radioactive waste generated through 2062.It's a relatively small volume of
waste compared with the vast amount of waste already planned to be disposed of
at Hanford. But the amount of radiation it contains is significant. It has an
estimated 130 million curies of radioactivity. That compares to the 190 million
curies of radioactivity in the millions of gallons of waste held in underground
tanks from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons
program, much of which DOE plans to dispose of off Hanford.

DOE officials faced a crowd of about 80 people Monday who ranged from skeptical to hostile. "I'm outraged. It's a lie. Isn't it?" demanded Gerald Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest, when a DOE official identified a pictured waste
container that was apparently abandoned as one that was being used. Similar
waste vaults are being considered for disposal at Hanford, eight other sites or
undetermined commercial facilities.

"We're being massaged with a lot of statistics," said Ruth Currie of Portland, who also said she didn't think DOE knows what it is doing. Problems at Hanford and other DOE sites were a recurring theme, with public comment hitting on delays in construction at the Hanford vitrification plant, last month's spill of high level radioactive waste at the Hanford tank farms and doubts that DOE would ever open the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Given DOE's long history of waste and cleanup mismanagement, a proposal to bring more waste to Hanford is essentially a plan to turn Hanford into a permanent national sacrifice zone, according to comments by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, read into the meeting record by a congressional
staffer.

"Hanford should be cleaned up, not dumped on," according to Wyden. Some
of the waste proposed to be sent to Hanford is extremely long-lived and must be
isolated for eternity, said Bill Mead, director of the Public Safety Resources
Agency in Portland. The meeting was an early step in determining what to do with
radioactive waste that includes activated metals from decommissioning nuclear
power plants and high-activity radioactive materials used for medical diagnosis
and treatment.

More than half would be from DOE nondefense work, with much of
that coming from a West Valley, N.Y., project. DOE is considering sending the
waste to a geological repository deep underground, such as Yucca Mountain, or
burying it at a site such as Hanford in a deep bore hole or waste containers
closer to the surface of the ground. The international nuclear community has
settled on deep bore hole disposal as the preferred option for similar waste,
said Christine Gelles, director of DOE's environmental management office of
disposal operations. Keeping the waste on site where it is generated and adding
protection to keep it safe from terrorists is a better option, said Angela
Crowley-Koch, executive director of the Oregon Chapter of Physicians for Social
Responsibility. Keith Harding of Hood River had another suggestion for where to
store the waste -- a certain ranch in Texas, he said, alluding to President
Bush's home.

Another public meeting will be held at 6 p.m. today at the Red Lion Hotel, 2525 N. 20th Ave., Pasco.