Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board Reflects on 2023 Activities and Looks Ahead to 2024
Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board members and ODOE staff at Hanford’s B Reactor, which is now part of the Manhattan Project National Historic Park.
The Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board submitted a first-of-its-kind report to the Oregon Legislature this month, outlining the board’s work over the past year and looking ahead into 2024 and beyond.
For more than 40 years, the federal government produced plutonium for America’s nuclear weapons program at the Hanford Nuclear Site in southeast Washington. The production process created significant amounts of radioactive and chemically hazardous waste at the site. Since plutonium production ended in 1989, the focus at Hanford has shifted to waste cleanup.
Because of Hanford’s proximity to Oregon and the Columbia River, the state has a critical role in the cleanup process. Oregon’s Hanford priorities and policies are established and communicated by the Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board and the Oregon Department of Energy’s Nuclear Safety and Emergency Preparedness Division. The board is a 20-member advisory group that includes 10 citizen members, six state legislators, and representatives from the Governor’s office, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and two state agencies. The board provides input to the U.S. Department of Energy and its regulators on cleanup priorities.
In the new report to the legislature this year, the OHCB and ODOE provide a brief history of the Hanford site, summarize actions taken in 2023 by the board and the agency, and provide a high-level look ahead at expected developments in 2024.
In 2023, the board held three public meetings, including one in Richland, WA that included a visit to B Reactor, the first reactor that produced plutonium at Hanford that now serves as a Manhattan Project National Historic Park. A meeting earlier in the year in Hood River hosted a panel discussion on future land use, including opportunities to engage with representatives from the Yakama Nation, Nez Perce Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
In February 2023, the OHCB and ODOE wrote a letter to Congress presenting the importance of adequately funding the U.S. DOE’s budget to complete the Hanford cleanup mission. ODOE’s Nuclear Safety and Emergency Preparedness division also submitted formal comments on several Hanford-related issues, including the 2023-2028 Hanford Five-Year Vision, analyses of alternatives related to high-level waste treatment options, cleanup at a Fast-Flux Test Facility, and a treatment variance proposed by the U.S. EPA.
Looking ahead to 2024 and beyond, the Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board and ODOE staff will be watching a number of emerging key issues, including:
A research building that’s close to the Columbia River that has high levels of radiation under its floor.
Negotiations around a holistic path forward for treatment and disposition of tank waste.
A ninth revision of the Sitewide Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Permit, which regulates most waste operations at Hanford.
Preliminary cleanup decisions on the river corridor at the last two major operable units associated with the K-East and K-West reactors and N-reactor.
The heat-up and cold commissioning of the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste Melter 2, which is intended to be the second melter that can immobilize some low-activity tank waste to dispose at Hanford.
Progress on the Test Bed Initiative, where the U.S. DOE is expected to be granted a final treatment variance from the U.S. EPA so 2,000 gallons of low activity tank waste can be disposed of outside the Northwest.
The Oregon Department of Energy is grateful to our Oregon Hanford Cleanup Board members for lending their time and expertise to this important work. Follow these links to read the full 2023 report or to learn more about the OHCB, the Hanford Nuclear Site, how Hanford can affect the Columbia River, and ODOE’s nuclear safety and emergency preparedness work.