News -- March 29, 1999

HEAL shuts down
The Hanford Education Action League in Spokane is closing its doors on March 31. Reasons given by its Board of Directors included the departure of director Lynne Stembridge, "a disappointing membership response to recent recruitment efforts and an increasingly bleak funding picture." The public interest group, founded in the mid-1980s, has been a leader on tank waste issues.

Public support slips for nuclear power, poll shows
Lincoln Journal Star -- March 28
Americans are more ambivalent about nuclear power than they were a decade ago, with fewer than half saying they support using atomic energy to produce electricity, according to an Associated Press poll. Sixty percent say they believe nuclear plants are safer now, but half the respondents believe a serious nuclear accident is likely at a U.S. power plant. (more)

DOE names New Mexico manager to oversee Hanford nuclear reservation
The Oregonian -- March 24
Keith Klein, acting manager for the U.S. Department of Energy's office in charge of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, has been named the new site manager at the Hanford nuclear reservation. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson made the announcement Tuesday. Richardson also has appointed Richard T. French to manage the new Office of River Protection at Hanford. ORP will be in charge of cleaning up the waste tanks. (more)

WIPP poised to receive first nuclear waste shipment
@marillo Glove-News -- March 25
After 25 years, hundreds of studies, countless hearings and innumerable protests, the U.S. Department of Energy loaded a truck with radioactive waste Wednesday and prepared to send it on a historic journey to an underground dump in southern New Mexico's salt beds, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Excavated in ancient salt beds nearly half a mile below the surface, WIPP will contain protective clothing, gloves, tools and other materials contaminated with plutonium during the nation's weapons work. (more)

DOE, state OK smaller Hanford tank fine
Tri-City Herald -- March 25, 1999
The state and the Department of Energy have agreed to cut to $10,000 a $75,600 fine against Hanford. The fine resulted from a spring 1998 Washington Department of Ecology inspection of central Hanford's tanks SY-101, SY-102 and SY-103 - the only double-shell tanks in the 200 West Area. The inspection found the tanks did not have the required number of leak detectors between the double walls and that the detectors in use were poorly maintained. None of the three tanks has leaked.

Under the agreement, Hanford is to have three leak detectors between the walls of the three SY tanks by Dec. 31. Hanford will submit to the state by mid-April a report on the status of all tank farm leak detectors and their maintenance and upgrading schedules. (more)

$97.8 million shortfall predicted for Hanford
Tri-City Herald -- March 26
If Hanford's budget stays level from 1999 to 2000, it will fall $97.8 million short of what is needed to meet the site's environmental cleanup obligations. The agency's proposed fiscal 2000 budget of $1.065 billion in Richland-managed programs and roughly $109 million in Washington, D.C.-managed programs would total roughly $1.174 billion for Hanford's cleanup.

DOE's master plan calls for funding cleanup projects nationwide at a steady level through at least 2006. But that approach appears to be unable to meet legal obligations under the Tri-Party Agreement governing Hanford's cleanup. (more)

Senate panel approves Hanford money transfer
Tri-City Herald -- March 28
A final U.S. Senate committee approved a $53.3 million internal transfer of Hanford money Friday. The situation's roots go back to last summer when DOE and BNFL Inc. tentatively agreed to delay the deadline to start operating yet-unbuilt tank waste glassification plants from 2002 to 2007. That had a major ripple effect in various tank farms construction schedules - prompting DOE to request a transfer of $53.3 million to other tank projects. (more)