Nuclear Waste Program History

Mission

In 1988, the Washington State Department of Ecology created a new program within the agency to deal specifically with mixed radioactive and chemically hazardous wastes. The primary focus of the Nuclear Waste Program is Hanford. The program also has regulatory responsibility for mixed wastes at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton and commercial facilities in the Tri-Cities area. In addition, the program oversees disposal and policy issues for commercial low-level radioactive wastes.

The mission of the Nuclear Waste Program is to ensure sound management of nuclear waste statewide and to promote the sound management and protection of the environment at, and adjacent to, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. To accomplish this mission, the program will:

• Enforce regulatory compliance and cleanup at the Hanford Site and at other facilities managing nuclear waste statewide.
• Promote public involvement, congressional and federal contact, and interstate activities in order to enhance nuclear waste management, compliance, and cleanup of the Hanford Site.
• Ensure appropriate oversight for the safe management and disposal of radioactive wastes at the Richland commercial low-level radioactive waste disposal site.

The Roots of Hanford Cleanup
Enormous changes at Hanford resulted from events in 1986:

• The U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) made available thousands of secret documents. The documents showed that defense-related work at Hanford resulted in off-site releases of radiation and considerable contamination of the site.
• The Chernobyl disaster heightened public concern about all things nuclear. This led to the shutdown of the last reactor at Hanford that produced weapons material, the N Reactor.
• USDOE selected Hanford as one of three potential sites for a high-level nuclear waste repository. This increased public awareness and concern throughout the Pacific Northwest about all aspects of Hanford’s nuclear operations.
• Through a statewide referendum 84 percent of Washington voters rejected using Hanford as a high-level nuclear waste disposal site.
• USDOE published its draft Hanford Defense Waste Environmental Impact Statement, revealing the volume and variety of wastes at Hanford.
• Congress granted the state of Washington legal authority to regulate hazardous wastes at Hanford. Due to public awareness of contamination and the end of the Cold War the Hanford Site changed its mission from nuclear weapon production to environmental cleanup and environmental management.

The Tri-Party Agreement
Before 1986 environmental laws only regulated private industry and state and local governments. Washington state (Ecology) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had to decide how to apply environmental regulations to a federal agency (USDOE) at Hanford. Instead of lengthy litigation, these three agencies agreed to manage cleanup under the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, also known as the Tri-Party Agreement. Signed in 1989, the agreement has a schedule to clean up Hanford over a 30-year period. It defines roles and responsibilities between Ecology and EPA for regulating hazardous waste sites.

Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program carries out this important work for the people of the state of Washington.