Event: Public Meeting with NRC and DOE Regarding Hanford’s C Farm Tanks
Category: Public Involvement Meetings

Public Meeting for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Present Its Request for Additional Information on the Draft Waste Incidental to Reprocessing (WIR) Evaluation for Waste Management Area C (Draft WIR Evaluation)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is hosting a public meeting on May 30 for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to present the DOE with Requests for Additional Information (RAIs) based upon NRC’s review of the Draft WIR Evaluation and associated performance assessment. DOE will ask clarifying questions of the NRC to support DOE’s future response to the NRC requests. DOE will present its responses to the NRC requests at a future public meeting, anticipated to take place in late summer, 2019. The agenda for both meetings will include an opportunity for members of the public to provide informal comments.

The Draft WIR Evaluation for WMA C is an important step toward closure of the 16 single-shell tanks at Hanford’s C Tank Farm, also known as Waste Management Area C (WMA C). Waste from these tanks has been successfully retrieved, and safely closing the retrieved tanks would be a significant achievement in DOE’s Hanford cleanup mission.

The Draft WIR Evaluation demonstrates that the tanks (where waste was retrieved), ancillary structures and their residuals in WMA C at the time of closure will meet the WIR criteria in DOE Manual 435.1-1, Radioactive Waste Management Manual, are not high-level radioactive waste, and may be managed as low-level waste.

DOE held a public comment period from June 4 to Nov. 7, 2018, and is consulting with the NRC on the evaluation and the associated performance assessment. Following consideration of comments received during the public comment period and NRC consultation, DOE anticipates issuing a final WIR Evaluation for WMA C. Next, DOE may potentially determine whether the stabilized tanks, ancillary structures, and their residuals in WMA C at the time of closure are wastes incidental to the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and can be managed as low-level radioactive waste.

For more information on the Draft WIR Evaluation and underlying performance assessment, visit https://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/WasteManagementAreaC.

If you are unable to attend in person you can participate via webinar, https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8308280793399618316, ID#: 561-789-347.

If you have questions, please contact Paula Call at paula.call@orp.doe.gov, and (509) 376-2048.

To request disability accommodation, please contact Jennifer Colborn, jennifer_m_colborn@rl.gov,
509-376-5840, in our external affairs office at least 10 working days prior to the event. DOE makes every effort to honor disability accommodation requests.