We keep this information on our website for educational and historical purposes. This archive includes past public comment periods, meetings, reports, and campaign information.
Hanford cleanup budget
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is gathering your comments on its Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Request. DOE is required to submit a compliant budget that keeps cleanup on track, but the budget changes as it goes up the chain of command to the President. Your comments can help put a spotlight on why it is important that the cleanup is fully funded.
The Hanford Site budget process is complicated. There are always three years of budget in play at one time. The current year, the following year, and the year after that. So this year, 2020, the Hanford site local managers for the U.S. Department of Energy, that run the Richland Operations and Office of River Protection cleanup are working on their budget requests for Fiscal Year 2022. Hanford's fiscal year goes from Oct. 1st to Sept. 30th.
Certain parts of the budget process are hidden from public view. Since 2013 more and more of the budget numbers have been embargoed so that you can't see them. This makes it really hard to provide meaningful comments on what the U.S. DOE local field office is planning to request. The lack of information also means you can't see how the field offices are prioritizing cleanup to know what would "fall off the cleanup plate" if the cleanup was not fully funded.
Take action today and comment on how you think your taxpayer dollars should fund cleanup. Find more information on our Say What? Guide.
purex tunnel 2
You have an opportunity to comment on the PUREX Tunnels Permit Modification. The Washington State Department of Ecology will be holding a public hearing in Seattle at the University of Washington on September 5, 2018 to present and take public comments on the PUREX Tunnels Permit Modification .
The proposed permit modifications affect the PUREX Storage Tunnels.The tunnels store waste, mostly large equipment components, from the PUREX Plant and other onsite sources. By completing the response action for Tunnel 1 and the proposed interim closure action for Tunnel 2, the tunnels will continue to safely store the waste. For more information please see the NWP public comment period page. The Sitewide Permit is Ecology’s tool for regulating the treatment, storage, and disposal of dangerous and mixed wastes (containing radioactive and hazardous chemicals) at Hanford. The permit’s purpose is to regulate the cleanup of the Hanford site while protecting people and the environment. The permit sets conditions based on the state’s laws and regulations that control the treatment, storage, and disposal of dangerous wastes.
Draft wir evaluation
Craft a comment you can stand by and feel good about taking action to make the world a safer, cleaner place. The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing to reclassify and abandon Hanford’s high-level tank waste.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking public comment on its Draft Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) Evaluation for Closure of Waste Management Area C (WMA C) at the Hanford Site. The Draft WIR Evaluation is a tool DOE is using to relabel Hanford’s high-level radioactive waste as low-level waste so that it can leave the remaining 62,900 gallons of waste in the 16 C-Farm tanks and cover the waste with concrete. This would allow DOE to “close” this cleanup project, leaving this waste in the tanks under concrete permanently.
High-Level Waste Interpretation
The U.S. Department of Energy has requested public comment on its interpretation of the definition of the statutory term “high level radioactive waste” (HLW) as set forth in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. This interpretation seeks to designate new criteria by which a waste may be determined to be “non-high-level” (non-HLW), thereby allowing such waste to be disposed in a facility other than a deep geologic repository.
Share your comment on this important issue today.