Residents tire of talk, demand action on Hanford

This editorial was published in The Columbian of Vancouver, Wash.

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More than 35 years after a Tri-Party Agreement was forged to promote cleanup at eastern Washington’s Hanford site, the people of our state are still waiting for meaningful action.

Chris Wright, who was confirmed this week as the nation’s energy secretary under President Donald Trump, should make attention to the site a centerpiece of his work. For decades, administrations of both political parties have given scant attention to the federal government’s duty to clean up the mess it left behind.

The Hanford site was established as part of the Manhattan Project, which resulted in development of the first atomic bomb during World War II. For decades after, plutonium for the U.S. nuclear arsenal was processed at the site. Washington did its part, and for generations it has been rewarded with nothing more than promises followed by inaction.

Today, an estimated 56 million gallons of radioactive waste remains at Hanford, much of it in storage tanks that are known to be leaking. Considering that the site sits near the Columbia River, about 200 miles upstream from Vancouver, urgency is in the best interest of Clark County residents.

Last year, state and federal officials trumpeted a new agreement for progress on cleanup efforts — after four years of mediated negotiations. That followed a 2010 consent decree issued by a federal court in the wake of a lawsuit over previously missed deadlines. And that followed a decision in the early 1990s that waste from Hanford would be turned into a glasslike substance at a proposed $4 billion vitrification plant.

In other words, Hanford has served as the proverbial can being kicked down the road for decades. Last year’s agreement called for beginning treatment of the least-radioactive waste this year and the treatment of high-level radioactive waste in 2033. The legal target for glassifying all waste sets a 2052 deadline; the Department of Energy has moved those targets back to 2069.

It is unlikely that Wright, a fossil fuel executive, will make Hanford a priority in his new role. Trump has often talked about increasing U.S. oil production — which reached record levels in 2023 and 2024 under President Joe Biden — but rarely has given attention to environmental concerns.

Sen. Maria Cantwell voted against Wright’s confirmation, expressing concerns about his answer regarding a 1989 Tri-Party Agreement outlining Hanford’s cleanup.

“His commitment to the Tri-Party Agreement and upholding it was unsatisfactory,” Cantwell said.

Following a committee hearing, Wright told Cantwell: “As a general matter, it is my belief that legal agreements should be honored. If confirmed, I will familiarize myself with the Hanford settlement agreement and would be happy to discuss the agreement and the critical importance of cleanup at the Hanford site.”

We hope he lives up to that promise. But elected officials from Washington must continue to press the issue.

Meanwhile, questions remain about the eventual storage of mitigated nuclear waste. A national repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada was approved by Congress in the 1980s, but political wrangling has prevented the establishment of such a facility. Early in his first term as president, Trump supported the development of the site; he has since turned against it.

All of that, for decades, has left a stockpile of radioactive waste near the banks of the Columbia River in Washington and has resulted in more talk than action. The people of our state deserve better.

TNS