SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Seventeen Oregon lawmakers are asking federal officials to remove the Hanford nuclear reservation from a list of potential permanent storage facilities for nuclear waste.
The lawmakers are all Democrats representing the Portland area. They wrote a letter Tuesday to U.S. Energy Department officials saying the Hanford site is already contaminated with radioactive waste.
The Hanford nuclear plant is located in southern Washington near the Columbia River. The lawmakers say they’re concerned about the potential for severe contamination in the Portland region if nuclear material were released on the area’s Interstate highways while being transported to Hanford.
Energy Department officials are looking at Hanford and a half-dozen other facilities for the potential permanent storage of low-level radioactive waste from medical devices, nuclear power plants, oil exploration and other uses.
