Hanford Cleanup Strategy

[Joe_E_Ed_Parsons@RL.gov]

Having viewed yesterday's dialog on the cleanup strategy for the Hanford
site, I am dishearten to see so many conclusions drawn so quickly.
However, it is understandable how easy it is to lump the Hanford site in
with so many of the other soil cleanup initiatives, given an image of
"cleaning up the dirt in the desert for $85 billion". May I offer the
following information:

On the Hanford site, there are to date;

	1400 identified waste sites (not by design)
	2100 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel (all deteriorating)
	55 million gallons of high level, hazardous liquid waste in 177
underground tanks
	1 million plus Curies of encapsulated Sr and Cs (deteriorating)
	11 metric tons of Plutonium
	5 million cubic yards of contaminated soil
	1 Trillion gallons of contaminated groundwater over 200 square
miles
	9 reactor sites (one declared a historic site)


	Yes, the $85 billion in cost needs continual questioning by
everyone. And yes, cleanup standards need to be commiserate with the
final risk to the public.  But by anyone's definition, the above are
true hazards (not just potential risks) requiring careful solutions. 

	The Hanford site today is not a "lock it up and walk away" site.
The condition of the majority of these hazards are such that if left
unattended, the final outcome would be catastrophic to the public,
ruining the economic life of the region.  (This is mainly due to the
Columbia River passing directly through the site.)  Please note there
are no "inherently safe" conditions for most of the above conditions.
Public safety is only maintained through interventions and actions of
the site workforce on a daily basis.  

	It is not possible to do justice to this issue through this
media.  I do ask that you continue to question our efforts, but also add
to the solution.  Please visit our website at http://www.hanford.gov has
an informational starting point.


				Ed Parsons, CHP
				Senior Technical Advisor, DOE
				joe_e_ed_parsons@rl.gov

The opinions above are my own....except the facts.