Feds drop appeal of Hanford fine

RICHLAND – The federal government has dropped its appeal of a $270,000 fine over the handling of radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, two years after the state imposed the penalty.

The issue arose in 2004 when the Department of Energy shipped 83 drums of laboratory equipment, protective clothing and other debris, which was contaminated with Hanford waste, to Hanford from South Carolina’s Savannah River National Laboratory.

Federal law allows the waste to be shipped to South Carolina for study and returned to Hanford, exempting it from provisions of state and federal hazardous-waste regulations. But the state contends those exemptions do not apply to waste generated at Savannah River – debris such as equipment, clothing and supplies that may have been contaminated in the testing process.