Hanford Cleanup To Take Longer, Says Doe

The U.S. Department of Energy says it is trying to finish the environmental cleanup of 43 contaminated sites around the country by the year 2006, but the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is not one of them.

Instead, Hanford is among 10 sites around the country that will require much longer to clean up, the agency said Monday.

The estimate to clean up the former plutonium production site is now set at $85.3 billion, more than half the total cost of cleaning up all the Department of Energy sites, the agency said.

The information is in a draft plan called “Accelerating Cleanup: Paths to Closure” released for public comment Monday by the Energy Department.

The plan looks at the costs and time of cleaning and closing 353 projects at 53 geographic sites. The department estimated the entire job will cost $147 billion and last until 2070.

“Paths to Closure is a significant step forward in tackling the enormous challenge of cleaning up more than 50 years of contamination from the nation’s production of nuclear weapons,” said James Owendoff of the Energy Department.

Hanford was created during World War II to make plutonium for nuclear weapons, and now contains the nation’s largest volume of radioactive defense wastes. They are in 177 underground storage tanks and other facilities. In addition, billions of gallons of wastes were poured directly into the ground over the years.

The wastes threaten the nearby Columbia River, and some of the tanks pose a risk of explosion.

In addition to Hanford, the report said long-term cleanup will also be needed at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory near Idaho Falls, and the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.

Hanford officials since 1994 have been seeking a way to accelerate the cleanup.

Washington Gov. Gary Locke recently said he will sue the Energy Department if any more Hanford cleanup deadlines are missed.

In late February, a citizen oversight panel urged the federal government to accelerate cleanup of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks at Hanford. The Hanford Advisory Board sent a letter signed by 42 members and alternates to Energy Secretary Federico Pena and the governors and congressional delegations of Washington and Oregon.