Public Meeting: Proposed actions on Hanford cleanup

The Department of Energy is holding several public meetings on the draft Environmental Impact Statement recently prepared to evaluate major proposed actions related to three aspects of the Hanford cleanup:

• Treatment (immobilization) of 53 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste stored in 177 aging underground tanks, as well as closure of the oldest 149 tanks once the waste has been treated. 
• Continued disposal of solid waste generated during on-going cleanup activities at Hanford, along with possibly disposing of waste at Hanford from other DOE sites around the nation.
• Decommissioning of Hanford’s Fast Flux Test Facility, a nuclear reactor that operated during the 1980s.

The EIS is required by law to assess the potential environmental impacts of the proposed actions and of reasonable alternatives.

Find out more and provide your comments at a Public Meeting on February 22, 2010:
Hoke Union Building
Eastern Oregon University
La Grande
6 p.m. –“Open House”
7 p.m. –Meeting


Because decisions made about Hanford have an impact on the environment and economy of the Columbia Basin, Eastern Oregon and beyond, your comments are important. DOE has provided a 140 day comment period on the draft EIS. The comment period closes March 19, 2010.  
 
For more information, contact: 
Ken Niles, Assistant Director 
Nuclear Safety Division, Oregon Department of Energy
503-378-4906 or ken.niles@state.or.us 
 
Written comments may be sent to: 
 
Mary Beth Burandt
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of River Protection
Document Manager
P.O. Box 1178
Richland, Washington 99352
Attention: TC & WM EIS.

Further Information:

1. WA Department of Ecology's views on the Environmental Impact Statement for Hanford Nuclear Reservation
2. Public summary of the EIS
3. Oregon Department of Energy's proposed alternatives