Energy Northwest barred from shipping nuclear waste after mislabeled shipment

The Washington Department of Health has indefinitely suspended Energy Northwest’s authority to ship low-level radioactive waste after a July 20 shipment to Hanford was mislabeled.

The health department notified Energy Northwest of its decision in a July 26 letter addressed to Mike Davis. It is the second time in less than a year that the state has barred the nuclear plant from shipping waste after shipments didn’t match up with manifests.

Mike Paoli, spokesman for Energy Northwest, said the July incident was minor and did not endanger public health or safety.

He noted that although the state health department acted, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not. Paoli said the health department acted correctly to take action but he characterized the incident as a non-event related to a wrong manifest. The shipment itself was properly packaged and accepted by US Ecology for storage at Hanford.

Energy Northwest’s Columbia Generating Station continues to operate normally, Paoli said, noting the no-shipping order will have no practical impact on operations.

Energy Northwest typically ships material to US Ecology every two weeks. However, it can store material on site while it works through the health department’s review process. Paoli said a report on the event will be reviewed by its internal “challenge board” before being sent to state regulators.

In the interim, Energy Northwest senior managers are scrutinizing all documentation associated with low-level waste shipments before they are moved off the site.

“They’re going to be crawling through everything,” Paoli said.

The health department acted after a manifest for a July 20 shipment indicated surface radiation levels were much lower than they actually were on arrival.

US Ecology at Hanford accepted the shipment but reported the discrepancy to state regulators.

Columbia Generating Station is one of 14 in the nation subject to enhanced scrutiny by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission because of past shipping discrepancies.

The NRC issued a “white’ violation finding against the plant last month related to a similar radioactive waste shipping incident last November. In that case, a 7-foot-tall, 45,000-pound cask of waste was trucked to US Ecology. The cask was surveyed and rejected because it was determined radiation was seven times greater than the manifest indicated.

An NRC “white” finding indicates a low to moderate safety significance and is the second of four levels of additional scrutiny.

It led the agency to put the plant on cycle for additional inspections. The NRC announced the finding in April and retained the status after a meeting with Energy Northwest in May.

At the time, the state health department barred the nuclear plant from sending waste to the US Ecology, only restoring its full privileges in June.

While Energy Northwest asserts the July incident was minor, an anti-nuclear group called it evidence of issues highlighted in a series of whistleblower leaks over the past year.

Physicians for Social Responsibility of Oregon and Washington released a copy of the health department’s order Friday shortly before the health department.

It also released a copy of a leaked internal Energy Northwest memo that ordered a halt to low-level waste shipments. The internal document outlined a series of past shipping missteps.

Spokesman Chuck Johnson said it was “mind boggling” that Energy Northwest had a new shipping problem just a month after the state health department reinstated shipping privileges.

“This is extraordinary,” Johnson said. “This does seem to be a consistent pattern. They admitted it in their own memo.”

The Bonneville Power Administration, which buys the power generated at the north Richland power plant, has asked Energy Northwest not to do any significance maintenance or surveillance during the current heat wave so it can operate at 100 percent power.

This story was originally published August 11, 2017 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Energy Northwest barred from shipping nuclear waste after mislabeled shipment."