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DOE estimates $100s of billions needed to finish Hanford nuclear waste cleanup [1]
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Date: 2023-01
Completing cleanup of the Hanford nuclear reservation will cost an estimated $300 billion to $640 billion, according to a new Department of Energy report.
The Hanford Lifecycle Scope, Schedule and Cost Report published at the end of January is the first in three years.
It drops the projected remaining cost from a range of $323 billion to $677 billion in the 2019 report as DOE re-evaluated work based on what it learned over the last three years.
That is after the 2019 lifecycle report tripled the estimated cost from the previous 2016 report, which put costs at $108 billion to complete most remaining cleanup by 2066.
The report, required by the legally binding Tri-Party Agreement, figures the remaining cost and a schedule for remaining environmental cleanup of the nuclear reservation, giving what DOE considers its best case and worst case scenarios.
The current estimate is for completing most cleanup by about 2078 plus the initial continued monitoring of the site through 2095.
The 580-square-mile Hanford site adjacent to Richland in Eastern Washington was used to produce almost two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.
Environmental cleanup
Now DOE is spending about $2.5 billion annually on environmental cleanup of radioactive and other hazardous chemical waste and contaminated buildings, soil and groundwater.
But the estimated costs to finish most cleanup by 2078 would require much larger annual budgets.
The dramatic jump in cleanup costs three years ago was attributed mostly to the increased cleanup costs for the 56 million gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks.
The tanks must be emptied, the tanks closed in place or removed, and then the waste treated for permanent disposal.
Hanford was used to produce plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program during World War II and the Cold War. Environmental cleanup is underway now. Courtesy Department of Energy
Current plans call for much of the waste to be turned into a stable glass form at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, or vitrification plant, which has been under construction in the center of Hanford since 2002.
DOE faces a court order to start up the plant to initially treat some of the least radioactive waste by the end of 2023, unless more time is allowed due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new report says that improvements in how the glass will be formulated will lead to more waste in each immobilized glass containers, reducing the number of waste-filled containers that need to be produced.
Cost savings
That and revised cost estimates for operating the vitrification plant provide cost savings, the report indicated.
DOE also pointed out that the report takes into account work completed over the last three years.
Among accomplishments was finishing the demolition of the Plutonium Finishing Plant, where plutonium in a liquid solution was processed into a solid form for shipment off site to weapons production facilities.
The report also projects that less money will need to be spent on treatment of contaminated groundwater than in earlier projections, as Hanford workers have consistently exceeded goals on that work.
The report projects spending at Hanford will peak in about eight years at about $7.5 billion, nearly triple the amount Congress is currently budgeting for the site, under the most optimistic estimate of $300 billion.
Spending would be above $4 billion from 2023 through 2069, according to projections.
Under the high range estimate of $641 billion, spending would be at least $6 billion a year from 2023 through about 2068.
Peak spending
Peak spending under that projection would be more than $16 billion a year in about 2059.
Much of the remaining cost will be for tank waste from emptying tanks through treating the waste for disposal. Under the low estimate, $219 billion of the $300 billion cost would be related to tank waste.
The remainder of Hanford work — ranging from basic operations of the site to tearing down contaminated buildings — could still cost more than $2 billion in the peak year of about 2033.
The report now has been sent for review to the Washington state Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency, both regulators of the Hanford site.
A 60-day public comment period on the report will begin on Feb. 15. Feedback can be emailed to
[email protected], according to the report, which DOE has not yet posted on its website.
The public comments will be considered as DOE drafts the next Hanford lifecycle report to be released in 2025.
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 12:52 PM.
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https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article257924898.html
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