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DOE Criticized for Lack of Action in Spent Fuel Cleanup
Release Date: 6/5/1998
Contact Information: Doug Sherwood
sherwood.doug@epamail.epa.gov
(509) 376-9529
June 5, 1998 - - - - - - - - - 98-32
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
In a letter signed today by both the EPA and the Washington Department of Ecology, the U.S. Department of Energy is being taken to task for what is referred to as "the last straw" in three years of "fruitless" negotiations over clean up of spent fuel at Hanford's K-Basins.
After three years of intense bargaining, EPA regional administrator Chuck Clarke has reached "the end of his rope" in the standard negotiation process.
"For three long years, we have bargained in good faith," Clarke declared, "with nothing to show for it except more hollow promises, interminable delays and spiraling cost overruns. Ironically, the K-Basins and their spent nuclear fuel wastes pose an extreme environmental threat less than a quarter of a mile from the Columbia River, yet this is the only significant environmental project at Hanford without enforceable milestones under the Tri-Party Agreement. It's time for things to change, and we'll do whatever's necessary to make it happen."
The letter will be discussed publicly today at a meeting of the Hanford Advisory Board in Richland. EPA and Ecology officials are calling this letter the first of several "significant, near term" actions aimed at accelerating the Hanford facility clean up.
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*SEE ATTACHED COPY OF LETTER FOR MORE DETAILS
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