RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Regulators have agreed to let some environmental cleanup deadlines slide at the Hanford nuclear reservation to focus on the highest priority work.
The Tri-City Herald reports (http://bit.ly/pi1yCT ) the changes are expected to allow work to continue demolishing the Plutonium Finishing Plant, to complete cleanup along the Columbia River by 2015 and to clean up contaminated ground water beneath Hanford.
Hanford’s budget will not fund some other work that had been accelerated with federal economic stimulus money.
The Energy Department and its regulators — the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology — have agreed to revise their Tri-Party Agreement to change eight deadlines. All are considered interim or pacing deadlines because they are intended to keep work on track.