Killing Hanford waste plant would squander $30B, decades of work | Editorial

The Hanford vitrification plant is weeks away from beginning to process radioactive waste. But now the Tri-Cities is getting mixed messages from Washington, D.C., about whether its start might be delayed or even canceled.

Such a change would be a grave mistake that would violate federal court orders, waste billions of taxpayer money and could leave up to 56 million gallons of radioactive waste threatening the Columbia River.

On Sept. 8, news broke that Energy Secretary Chris Wright had fired Roger Jarrell, the principal deputy assistant secretary overseeing Hanford and other cleanup operations. The website Politico reported that Wright wants to pursue a “different direction” on the cleanup.

Politico’s anonymous source also said, “I think they want to kill” the treatment plant project altogether.

In other words, Wright might abandon the cutting-edge vitrification process that encases waste in glass in favor of possibly cheaper alternatives.

The plant has been under construction for 23 years at a cost of at least $30 billion and employs nearly 3,000 with an annual payroll of about $350 million.

The plant is undergoing final preoperational testing and is on course to begin treatment of the least radioactive tank waste starting Oct. 15, the deadline mandated by a federal consent decree.

Canceling or delaying the project would violate that court order, as well as the Tri-Party Agreement between the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., spoke with Wright on Wednesday and based on that conversation believes that the Department of Energy is intentionally stalling progress at the vitrification plant.

“Secretary Wright admitted to me during a phone call that the Department of Energy is planning to curb hot commissioning at the Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford — an astonishingly senseless and destructive move and a threat to the entire nuclear cleanup mission at Hanford,” Murray said.

However, a day later, Wright told Washington state officials that he has made no changes to DOE’s plans or strategy for treating Hanford’s radioactve waste.

“Although there are challenges, we are committed to beginning operations by October 15, 2025,” Wright said in a statement.

The contradictory statements leave Hanford workers not knowing who to believe.

Wright owes the public an honest explanation. What is his plan to meet the Energy Department’s legal, environmental and moral obligations at Hanford? Would he really consider mothballing the world’s most sophisticated radioactive waste treatment plant and write off the billions spent on it?

If the Trump administration is frustrated with progress at Hanford, it is not alone. The cleanup has taken far longer than anyone wanted, especially the communities that live adjacent to the nuclear waste.

But the wait on some of the most difficult cleanup is finally ending. Now is not the time to change course, creating new delays and squandering untold billions that have already been spent.

Hanford’s 56 million gallons of toxic and radioactive material pose an ongoing threat to the Columbia River. Some of the tanks have already leaked into the soil, and without waste treatment others will follow. When isotopes of cesium, strontium, plutonium and other waste reach the river, they could cause widespread harm.

Fisheries, especially critical salmon runs, would be at risk. So would drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people and water that irrigates farms and pastures.

The moral case for staying the course is even clearer. The Tri-Cities and other nearby communities took on the burden of hosting a secret government project. Hanford produced plutonium for nuclear weapons that helped win World War II and defend America throughout the Cold War. Now the federal government has an obligation to mitigate its toxic legacy and prevent future harm.

Project 2025, the blueprint for a conservative overhaul of the federal government that the Trump administration has been implementing, recommends grouting.

At the start of this year, after years of discussion, the state of Washington and federal government agreed that grouting of some of the less radioactive waste would be done in tandem with operation of the vitrification plant.

It is not an “either-or” proposition, but a way to get more waste safely solidified and out of leak-prone underground tanks sooner and possibly at a lower cost by grouting in addition to vitrifying.

Secretary Wright and the Department of Energy must end the uncertainty by beginning operations by Oct. 15 and securing the Hanford waste for years to come.

That was the promise to the Tri-Cities, to Washington and to the nation. It is a promise that must be kept.