Washington State Sets New Deadlines For Hanford Waste Cleanup
Read On
The state of Washington is setting new deadlines to clean up a former plutonium production site that contains a massive quantity of radioactive waste.
Such deadlines are usually set through negotiations among the Washington Department of Ecology, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
But the Tri-City Herald reports that the state has become frustrated with a lack of legally-binding deadlines related to the 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground storage tanks on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
The Energy Department had not negotiated the deadlines as required by 2015.
Among other things, the state is requiring the Energy Department to design new underground storage tanks by 2023.
DOE has long objected to building new tanks.
Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons.
Copyright 2019 Associated Press
Related Stories:
Washington’s Senator Patty Murray said Hanford safety in jeopardy, she’s ‘really, really worried’
(Credit: Anna King / NWPB) About a dozen federal workers have been fired from the Hanford site in southeast Washington state. Hanford is the contaminated legacy of plutonium manufacturing during
Project 2025 and Hanford: What Trump’s second term could mean for WA’s toxic sludge
A gate and signs stand guard at one of the Hanford site’s tank farms. (Credit: Anna King / NWPB) Listen (Runtime 4:02) Read By Anna King and Jeanie Lindsay Traffic
Washington state, federal agencies finalize agreement for tank waste cleanup at Hanford
Hanford workers take samples from tank SY-101 in southeast Washington state. (Courtesy: U.S. Department of Energy) Listen (Runtime :59) Read When it comes to tank waste at Hanford in southeast
