State, feds argue over nuclear waste authority

YAKIMA – The U.S. Department of Energy and Washington state squared off in federal court Tuesday over whether the state has authority to regulate storage of a certain type of radioactive trash at south-central Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The waste, known as mixed transuranic waste, typically is debris, such as clothing, equipment and pipes left over from nuclear weapons production, that has been contaminated both with plutonium and hazardous chemicals.

The state of Washington sued the Energy Department in 2003 to block shipments of the untreated waste to Hanford out of concern that it could be stranded at the site and add more waste to a spot considered the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site.

The Energy Department has said the waste eventually will be shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for long-term disposal.

And once the waste is designated as destined for WIPP, storage requirements do not apply, Mike Zevenbergen, a Justice Department lawyer, told U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald on behalf of the Energy Department.

The state, however, has the authority to prohibit storage of waste already restricted from land disposal, such as hazardous waste, said Andrew Fitz, an assistant attorney general for Washington state.

The waste may be safe to be stored at WIPP, but that does not mean it is safe to be stored at Hanford, Fitz said.

The fact that such waste “has been sitting at Hanford for 30 years is the reason we’re here today,” he said.

Of particular concern is so-called remote-handled waste, which is highly dangerous and cannot be handled by workers. The federal government does not yet have the authority or necessary permits from the state of New Mexico to store that trash at WIPP, which means there is no clear path for it to leave Hanford, Fitz said.

Zevenbergen countered that the Energy Department, in the past, has designated waste for storage or long-term disposal at sites before having the necessary permits. The agency already has authority from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and has submitted an application to New Mexico officials, to dispose of remote-handled waste at WIPP, he said.

The current lawsuit was filed long before Washington voters approved Initiative 297 last fall. The measure bars the federal government from sending any more nuclear waste to Hanford until all existing waste there is cleaned up.

The Energy Department filed suit last month, challenging the constitutionality of the measure.