SPOKANE — The 2,000 gallons of liquid nuclear waste to be shipped out from the Hanford site next year are officially set to pass through Spokane.
On Sept. 18, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown published an objection letter to liquid waste being shipped through Spokane en route to treatment facilities in Utah and Texas. The Washington Department of Ecology issued a response both confirming that the waste will be shipped through Spokane and clarifying that this decision does not necessarily extend to future waste removal efforts.
The Test Bed Initiative is a project by the Department of Energy intended to test the viability of transporting pretreated, low-level radioactive waste out of the Hanford site in liquid form. Set to travel via the Interstate highway system next year, the initiative has garnered significant concern from the governor of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Hanford watchdog organizations and recently, Brown.
The most pressing concern shared by these groups is the “inherent danger” associated with transporting hazardous waste in liquid form. Should there be an accident, a liquid is more difficult to clean compared with a solid. Another concern is the lack of an Environmental Impact Statement for the decision.
The Department of Energy published a fact sheet in May stating that more than 2 billion tons of hazardous materials are transported around the nation yearly, and that in the unlikely case of a “severe accident,” the highest radiation that an individual might be exposed to is comparable to an abdominal X-ray. The sheet states that 98% of the radioactivity from the waste will be removed prior to shipment, and that the transport containers would only be holding 10% of their radioactive allowance.
In a statement, The U.S. Department of Energy also wrote that “the proposed action will not constitute a major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment within the meaning of (the National Environmental Policy Act),” and therefore an Environmental Impact Statement for the project is unnecessary.
In her letter of objection to liquid wastes being transported through Spokane, Brown wrote that she understood that if the test was successful, millions more gallons of waste would be shipped in this manner. While in previous interviews with The Spokesman-Review a Department of Energy spokesman stated that the success of the test could inform future waste removal efforts, the ecology department clarified in its response to Brown that the millions of gallons being transported after the Test Bed Initiative belong to a different project.
The other project, part of what is called the Holistic Agreement, is not scheduled to begin treating waste at Hanford until 2028 at the earliest. Routes of transport have not been determined for this project, and it is undecided whether the waste will be transported as a solid or a liquid.
The director of the Department of Ecology, Laura Watson, requested a meeting with Brown to further clarify the distinction between the two projects.
City spokesperson Erin Hut said in an email that the mayor’s office has received and is evaluating the response from ecology.
She said that there was no additional comment about whether a meeting had been arranged or whether the mayor’s stance on the liquid waste being shipped through Spokane has changed.
