Judge names experts to advise on Hanford consent decree

The federal judge hearing the Hanford consent decree litigation has selected her panel of technical advisers, overruling the concerns of the Department of Energy.

Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson has agreed to the experts proposed by the state of Washington and DOE and their jointly proposed expert.

She plans to discuss issues with all three technical advisers present, but outside the presence of attorneys, media and members of the public.

“The court seeks an open dialogue among the technical advisers, and by excluding the parties, the public and counsel from the discussions, the court intends to create an atmosphere in which the technical advisers openly express their independent opinions and openly engage in discussion with each other and the court,” Malouf Peterson said in a court order.

Suzanne Dahl, the state Department of Ecology section manager for tank waste treatment and the sitewide permit, is the state’s choice approved by Malouf Peterson.

DOE had objected that she lacks the expertise to assist the court in unraveling the complex scientific, technical and project management issues in the case. The state countered that her two decades of experience with the Hanford nuclear reservation and related regulatory issues make her uniquely qualified to advise the judge.

The judge noted, but overruled, DOE’s objection.

“Both parties refer to the role of the technical advisers as defining for the court ‘jargon and theory’ relevant to nuclear engineering,” Malouf Peterson said.

But she plans to take a broader approach, using the panel as a sounding board to help her analyze issues presented by the parties and to think through the critical technical problems based on evidence submitted by the parties, she said.

DOE’s choice for the panel was Jeffery Trent, an independent technical and project management consultant to DOE.

Malouf Peterson said she is aware of the potential biases of Dahl and Trent and will keep it in mind as they give her advice.

The third member of the panel, agreed to by the state and DOE, is Per Peterson, professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

The technical advisers will not assume the role of witnesses by supplying new evidence, nor will they make factual findings or draw legal conclusions.

“The technical advisers shall not be advocates for any party,” the judge said.

State and federal officials are prohibited from contacting the panel members regarding any discussion with the judge.

In case there are concerns about the role the technical advisers play in their closed-door discussions with the judge, sesions will be recorded to preserve a record for any future review, she said.

Members of the panel will be compensated, with the judge asking the parties in the case to propose pay rates.

DOE and the state have proposed new deadlines for emptying radioactive waste from certain leak-prone tanks at Hanford and building and starting operation of the vitrification plant. The plant will glassify up to 56 million gallons of waste for disposal.

DOE and the state resolved a lawsuit brought by the state in 2008 over missed Hanford deadlines by agreeing to the court-enforced consent decree in 2010. The consent decree set new deadlines. The consent decree is back before the court for enforcement after DOE said that most of the remaining deadlines in the consent decree are at serious risk of being missed.

This story was originally published October 16, 2015 at 2:14 PM with the headline "Judge names experts to advise on Hanford consent decree."