Publication Laka-library:
Unresolved Issues concerning Hanford's waste management practices (1986)
| Author | US GAO |
| Date | November 1986 |
| Classification | 3.01.8.43/03 (UNITED STATES - SITES - HANFORD) |
| Front | 
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From the publication:
Background The methods Hanford uses to store or dispose of waste have changed over the last 43 years. Between 1943 and 1980, Hanford used 149 single-shell tanks to store high-level liquid radioactive waste. Leaks from these tanks prompted Hanford to use double-shell tanks; it expects to have 28 by October 1986. Also, until 1970 Hanford disposed of liquid low-level and transuranic (man-made radioactive elements with atomic numbers greater than uranium) radioactive waste directly to the soil and buried the solid form of these wastes in shallow pits. Hanford continues to use soil disposal and burial for low-level waste, but since 1970 it has packaged and stored solid transuranic waste pending geologic disposal. Also, since 1973 Hanford has put liquid transuranic waste in double-shell tanks. Hanford has 39 active and at least 337 inactive low-level waste disposal sites and 35 transuranic waste sites. RCRA and CERCLA are multi-faceted, complex waste management statutes. RCRA regulates hazardous waste from generation through its ultimate disposal, and CERCLA regulates the cleanup of inactive waste sites. DOE must comply with both statutes but is exempt from RCRA when compliance would be inconsistent with the Atomic Energy Act; RCRA also excludes source, byproduct, and special nuclear material (GAO refers to these as RCRA's Atomic Energy Act exclusions). CERCLA has no exclusions, and one provision of RCRA's 1984 amendments (underground storage tanks) includes all radioactive material. Effective January 1986, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authorized Washington State to implement RCRA under EPA's direction; EPA manages CERCLA.
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