ANOTHER DELAY ON NUCLEAR WASTE

Hanford waste study delayed over Yucca Mountain
Annette Cary, August 4, 2009 (McClatchy via Tacoma News Tribune)

"A long-awaited study expected to lead to final decisions on environmental cleanup of much of the Hanford nuclear reservation's waste has been delayed because of Yucca Mountain.

"The draft Tank Closure & Waste Management Environmental Impact Statement most recently was expected to be released in May. Now the Department of Energy is saying the draft report, expected to be thousands of pages long, will be available by the end of the year…The draft was originally planned to be ready in spring 2007…"

Meanwhile, the waste piles higher and deeper. (click to enlarge)

"The wide-ranging environmental study was planned to address such key questions as how quickly to treat radioactive waste now stored in underground tanks, how much waste may be left at the bottom of the tanks and what to do with the tanks themselves…[B]ecause of the Obama administration's decision to sideline plans for opening a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the Hanford draft study will be delayed…Additional time is needed…DOE said…

"Hanford's high-level tank waste was planned to be sent to the nation's nuclear waste repository after being treated…The study also will look at disposal alternatives for Hanford chemical and radioactive waste and such wastes sent from other states to be buried permanently at Hanford."

Hanford in its prime. Now awaiting cleanup. (from Wikipedia. click to enlarge)

"DOE had completed a study on solid waste, but the state of Washington questioned whether ground water information was adequate. Then during the final stages of a lawsuit filed by the state against DOE to stop the importation of nuclear waste to Hanford, DOE discovered problems with the ground water information in the study.

"It agreed to redo portions of the study as part of a settlement in January 2006 and to not ship most types of radioactive waste to Hanford until a new study was prepared. The solid waste study then was combined with the tank waste study…[It] also will cover the final treatment and disposal of strontium and cesium capsules now stored in a pool at Hanford. And it will address the final shutdown of Hanford's Fast Flux Test Facility."