Record fine in Hanford cleanup

RICHLAND – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday fined the federal Energy Department a record $1.1 million over violations of an agreement to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the nation’s most polluted nuclear weapons production site.

The fine, the largest levied by the EPA’s Northwest office over work at Hanford, involved operations at the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility landfill on the Hanford site.

“The Department of Energy needs to do a better job of managing the cleanup work at Hanford,” said Nick Ceto, EPA’s Hanford Project manager.

“Our cleanup agreement with the Department of Energy clearly defines what constitutes responsible, careful waste management practice,” said Elin D. Miller, EPA’s regional administrator in Seattle. “Continued missteps at one of the country’s most complex and difficult cleanup sites cannot, and will not, be tolerated.”

The violations did not produce any release of radioactive waste into the environment, Ceto said.

“We’ve said from the outset that we take these incidents at (the landfill) very seriously and are taking any and all actions necessary to make sure that nothing like this can happen again,” said Colleen French, an Energy Department spokeswoman.

“We must ensure that the quality of the Hanford cleanup work is not overly dependent on the actions of any one individual, and we have worked with our contractor to take immediate corrective action,” French added in a statement. “We have also significantly increased the level of oversight by DOE staff out in the field.”