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Trump urged to propose a strong Hanford budget Tuesday

By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald
Published: May 23, 2017, 9:22am

Washington congressional leaders have some compelling evidence to make the case for a strong Hanford budget as they wait for a fiscal 2018 budget proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration.

In the two weeks before the budget proposal is expected to be released Tuesday, the roof of a tunnel storing old, highly radioactively contaminated equipment collapsed at the nuclear reservation and then contamination was discovered that could indicate a 1970s-era underground waste tank may have an interior leak.

“It is clear aging infrastructure and the waste contained within it continues to present a threat to the health and safety of the Tri-Cities community, the Columbia River, Washington state and our nation,” said a letter sent Friday to new Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

It was signed by Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.

They also repeated their invitation for Perry to visit the 586-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation, where much of the nation’s plutonium was made for nuclear weapons from World War II through the Cold War.

The letter did not mention the possible problem with double-shell Tank AZ-101 that became known the day the letter was sent. But when the letter was publicly released Monday it was with a statement saying members also support strong funding for work related to the 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks at Hanford.

Monday a video camera was being inserted in one of the risers that extend from the ground into the space between the inner and outer shells of Tank AZ-101. Videos shot with a camera inserted into multiple risers ringing the space between the shells could help determine if the tank is leaking waste from its inner shell.

The oldest of Hanford’s 28 double-shell tanks, Tank AY-102, already has been emptied of waste after an interior leak was discovered. The leak was contained by the outer shell and no waste reached the soil beneath the tank.

Issues were raised about a second tank, Tank AZ-101 when a robotic crawler inserted into the space between the shells Thursday came out of the tank with unexpected contamination.

Waste from leak-prone single-shell tanks is being emptied into the double-shell tanks that remain in service, and space is limited, particularly until the vitrification plant is ready to start glassifying the waste for permanent disposal.

On Monday, the Department of Energy and the Washington State Department of Ecology started meeting to discuss next steps to stabilize the breached tunnel. The breach has been filled with sand and soil, and a 40,000-square-foot piece of heavy, industrial plastic was pulled over it Saturday.

However, the tunnel, which has held waste since the early ’60s, remains at risk of further collapse. Officials are discussing ways to keep the waste safely contained.

The tunnel is at the PUREX processing plant in central Hanford, where DOE has planned to focus environmental cleanup efforts after finishing much of the cleanup in the 220 square miles closest to the Columbia River.

Significant progress has been made on cleanup along the Columbia River, the letter said.

The areas around seven of nine plutonium production reactors lining the river have been cleaned up and most of the buildings in the 300 Area just north of Richland have been decontaminated and demolished.

Later this year the Plutonium Finishing Plant, which the letter called the highest risk nuclear facility at Hanford, should be torn down.

“Despite this hard work, much work remains,” the letter said.

Central Hanford has about 1,000 waste sites, about 500 facilities, and contaminated soil and groundwater that must be cleaned up to end the risk to workers, the public and the environment, the letter said.

“Strong and predictable funding is critical to continued cleanup progress and to the federal government fulfilling its legal and moral obligations to remediate the Hanford site,” the letter said.

Last year the budget proposed by the administration of former President Barack Obama recommended cutting the budget for work other than the Hanford tank farms and the vitrification plant by $191 million. Murray worked to get some of that money restored to the current fiscal year budget and to retain an increase in tank farm spending.

The Trump administration in March released a fiscal 2018 budget outline, dubbed the “skinny budget,” with a proposed increase from $6.2 billion last year to $6.5 billion in the coming fiscal year for DOE nuclear cleanup. But there was no information about how much of the money Hanford might receive or whether more projects might be rolled into DOE nuclear cleanup budget, potentially spreading it more thinly.

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