Coalition Calls on DOE to Reconsider Nuclear Waste Rule
February 26, 2021 WASHINGTON– The Yakama Nation, state of Washington and environmental groups joined together in an unprecedented request to the Department of Energy today that it rescind a harmful Trump-era regulation that could allow millions of gallons of radioactive waste to be abandoned at the Hanford Site.
Remediating and removing this toxic waste, which is a legacy of the early U.S. nuclear bomb program, is essential to protecting the Yakama people – and millions more who live downstream along the Columbia River basin.
Given President Biden’s strong and historic commitment to environmental justice, protecting public health, and science-based policymaking, tossing this insidious rule and recommitting to a clean-up of the Hanford Site is crucially important.
ANNA KING/NW NEWS NETWORK
Originally published on January 19, 2021 5:36 pm
As President Donald Trump prepared to leave office, his Department of Energy was celebrating that a new analytical lab was “ready to operate” at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington.
The lab, being largely constructed by DOE contractor Bechtel National, Inc. is part of a low-level radioactive waste treatment facility meant to make glass logs out of the hazardous goo.
In what’s become a normal part of every outgoing administration’s listing of accomplishments, the department recently celebrated the construction of that facility.
While incoming President Joe Biden was selecting his new cabinet, two DOE undersecretaries flew to Richland to cheer progress on the facility. The agency also debuted a website that gives virtual tours of the Hanford site to the public.