HANFORD WATCH NEWSLETTER
June 12, 1999

BILL WOULD GIVE OREGON MORE SAY OVER CLEANUP OF HANFORD WASTE
The Spokesman-Review -- June 9, 1999
Oregon would get as much say as Washington state in directing the
cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, under a bill introduced
Tuesday by two Oregon lawmakers. The bill by Rep. Peter DeFazio and
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., would add Oregon as a fourth party to the
so-called ``Tri-Party Agreement'' that governs the cleanup effort. The
agreement involves the Department of Energy, the Environmental
Protection Agency and state of Washington.

While Oregon is asked for advice and guidance on Hanford issues, the
state's advice is sometimes ignored, said Mike Grainey, assistant
director for Oregon's energy office. The DeFazio-Walden bill for the
first time would give Oregon a true say in the cleanup, he said.
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat, also endorsed the proposal.
"Oregon has as much at stake in the cleanup of Hanford as
Washington,'' he said in a statement.
http://www.spokane.net/news-story.asp?date=060999&ID=s591377&cat=secti
on.Environment

ACTION ALERT – Please e-mail your Representative and ask him or her to
cosponsor this bill -- H.R. 2052 – and work for its passage. Also
please ask Senators Wyden and Smith to introduce similar legislation
in the Senate. Legislators’ e-mail links are in the left column on
the Hanford Watch web site homepage. Thanks.
Lynn Porter, Hanford Watch

PUBLIC BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS
House of Representatives -- June 8, 1999
By Mr. DeFAZIO (for himself and Mr. Walden of Oregon):
H.R. 2052. A bill to provide the State of Oregon with a role in
decisions made on environmental restoration and waste management at
the Department of Energy's Hanford Reservation; to the Committee on
Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?r106:./temp/~r106kjTFlo

CLEANUP PACT WORKS WELL WITHOUT OREGON
Tri-City Herald editorial -- June 11, 1999
Oregon's efforts to crash the Tri-Party Agreement concerning Hanford
cleanup are unnecessary and could actually hinder a process that has
been working well through its first 10 years. If Oregon's interests
were different than Washington's, DeFazio and Walden's proposal might
have some merit. But they are the same -- safe, effective cleanup --
so adding another regulator would be redundant and not helpful. Oregon
certainly does have an interest in Hanford cleanup's success, and
that's why its representatives are included on the Hanford Advisory
Board, which holds many of its meetings in Oregon. And the interests
of Oregon and other nearby states are represented through the federal
agencies.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/OPINION/0611.html#anchor596187

Comment: There is certainly an overlap between Oregon and
Washington’s Hanford interests – both states want Hanford cleaned up.
But there are also large differences. Washington is ambivalent about
Hanford because it involves not only cleanup but jobs, money and
votes. Oregon doesn’t have that problem. – L.P.

OREGON HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 11
Ordered by the House April 23, 1999
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:
(1) The Congress of the United States is urged to:
(a) Fund and expedite the cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear
Reservation.
(b) Fund other cleanup efforts to protect the Columbia River and to
work closely with Pacific Northwest officials to ensure the success
of these programs.
(c) Provide the State of Oregon with legal rights in matters
affecting the Hanford Nuclear Reservation that involve handling,
storage and cleanup of radioactive wastes, including party status in
the Hanford Tri-Party Agreement or any successor thereto.
(2) A copy of this resolution shall be sent to each member of the
Oregon Congressional Delegation.
gopher://gopher.leg.state.or.us/11/measure.dir/House_Measures

REMOVAL OF SLUDGE ACTS TO COOL HANFORD TANK
The Oregonian – June 9, 1999
The hottest waste storage tank at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has
cooled significantly since two-thirds of tank C-106's radioactive
sludge was removed, the U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday. Since
last fall, the Department of Energy has sluiced about 46 inches of
radioactive sludge from the tank, causing the temperature to drop.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/99/06/st060915.html

K BASINS' TROUBLES MOUNT AND FRUSTRATE
Tri-City Herald editorial -- June 7, 1999
In the past year, Fluor Daniel has made some key management changes,
redoubled its commitment to the Hanford contract and shown some
progress. But the company must turn itself around, and soon.
Revelations like the hefty fine and the pipe weld problems only give
ammunition to members of Congress or administration bureaucrats who
are looking for ways to save money at the expense of Hanford cleanup.
Apparent incompetence and poor management make for good reasons.
Neither Fluor, the Department of Energy nor this community can afford
that risk.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/OPINION/0607.html#anchor596187

COMMENTARY: HANFORD'S OLD REACTORS ARE TOO DANGEROUS TO BE FIRED UP
The Register-Guard – May 9, 1999
By A. Stanley Thompson
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is right in saying that the Hanford fast-flux
reactor [FFTF] is "a reactor that ought to be left for dead." This
deadly boondoggle should be stopped from the risk of spreading
manufactured radioactivity over all future generations. Among
nuclear reactors, some are more dangerous than others. Most of the
world's reactors are "thermal," cooled and moderated by water.

"Fast" reactors are more dangerous than thermal reactors for three
reasons:
1) Fast reactors are cooled by sodium, a metal that burns in air and
explodes on contact with water.
2) Increases in power during a runaway accident occur immensely more
rapidly in fast reactors than in thermal.
3) Fast reactors are particularly susceptible to power instability
because for economic and physical reasons they are operated at higher
power density.
A. Stanley Thompson of Eugene is a retired mechanical engineer who
worked in the nuclear power industry.
http://www.registerguard.com/news/19990609/ed.col.thompson.0609.html

TANK WASTE TREATMENT ALTERNATIVE FINANCING
Hanford Advisory Board advice – June 4, 1999
The HAB does not have the expertise to adequately review and provide
comments on the DOE Tank Waste Treatment alternative financing and
contracting policy analysis. Therefore, the HAB requests DOE include
HAB-selected experts in this important review, as is consistent with
the HAB charter allowing for independent review of major policy
issues.

The alternative contracting and financing policy analysis, including
the independent review, must be completed at the time of the
President's FY2001 budget request submittal to Congress. The budget
submittal should reflect a funding request that is supported by a
credible policy analysis and cost comparison of alternative
contracting and financing mechanisms. The results of this analysis
must be fully available for public review.
http://www.hanford.gov/boards/hab/advice/advice95.htm

TRI-CITIES GETS LESS FOR DOE JOB CUTS
Tri-City Herald – June 10, 1999
The Tri-City area gets proportionally less federal money to deal with
Department of Energy cutbacks than many less-needy communities with
DOE sites, according to a federal report released this week. Hanford
lost more jobs than any other DOE site from 1995 to 1998, the General
Accounting Office report says.

But the Tri-Cities received just $3,098 in DOE community assistance
money for each lost Hanford job -- the second lowest amount among 11
communities that received DOE assistance during that time. The report
showed the Tri-Cities posted the highest number of layoffs -- 5,964
in the four-year period -- while also having the highest unemployment
rate at 7.9 percent.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/1999/0610.html

MAKE NO MISTAKE, THERE'S A TRAIN COMING
The Nevada Appeal -- June 6, 1999
Letter from Harry W. Swainston
If, as the scientists fear, the upwelling of water from underneath
Yucca Mountain should recur as the geologic evidence indicates it has
done episodically for the past several million years, it will erode
the hot canisters of waste, emitting violent plumes of radioactive
steam.

According to a credible theory advanced by two Los Alamos scientists,
nuclear explosions could eventually occur. So pernicious are the
deficiencies of the site, when combined with the deadly waste, they
would make the catastrophe simulated in "Atomic Train" look like a
walk in the park. The worst case scenario of an environmental
catastrophe at Yucca Mountain could well mean that life on the
Planet Earth could be annihilated or, at a minimum, irreversibly
changed forever.
http://www.tahoe.com/appeal/stories.6.6.99/opinion/ltrstrain06Jun6693.
html

YUCCA PAYLOAD GROWS 50 PERCENT
Las Vegas Sun -- June 10, 1999
A proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain may have to hold
50 percent more highly radioactive material than originally planned,
the local head of the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain Project
told state officials Wednesday. Not only wastes from commercial
nuclear power plants, but also from former nuclear bomb manufacturing
sites such as Hanford, Wash., and Savannah River, S.C., could send up
to 105,000 tons of radioactive wastes to the repository instead of the
estimated 70,000 tons.

After nuclear testing and the Cold War ended in 1992, the DOE began to
clean up former nuclear bomb-making sites at Hanford, which processed
uranium and plutonium; Rocky Flats near Denver, which produced
plutonium, and Savannah River, S.C., which processed uranium. The DOE
is abandoning plans to turn Savannah River's 34 million gallons of
liquid nuclear weapons waste into glass blocks after 16 years and
almost $500 million.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/1999/jun/10/508910304.h
tml