EIS-0113_Section_9 - Hanford Site

contained comments regarding its preparation. The draft EIS was published during March 1986,
and its availability was published in the Federal Register on April 11 (51 FR 12547). During
the 120-day agency and public comment period on the draft EIS, which began on April 11, 1986,
243 letters were received that provided about 2000 substantive comments on the draft EIS. In
addition, oral testimony was heard on the draft. EIS in public hearings held during July .1986.,
in Richland, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; and Spokane, Washington. -
Excluded from consideration in this EIS are low-level radioactive wastes in liquid and
solid disposal sites at Hanford (see ERDA 1538). These waste sites are presently being
reviewed under hazardous-waste regulations. Also excluded are wastes generated by decontamination
and decommissioning of surplus or retired facilities after the year 1983 (other
than for .those facilities directly associated with waste disposal). Those operations will be
the subject of other National Envi-ronmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews..
The Defense Waste Management Plan (DOE/DP 0015) states of the Hanford wastes: "Immo -
bilizationof new and readily retrievable high-level waste will begin about 1990 after
sufficient experience is available from Savannah River's vitrification process. Other waste
"'IIr will be stabilized in place in the 1985-2015 time frame if, after the requisite environmental
documentation, it is determined that the short-term risks and costs of retrieval and transportation
outweigh the environmental benefits of disposal in a geologic mined repository."
It is necessary to understand the major differences between civilian and defense wastes
and the prograRs to effect their disposal. Both types of waste include fission products and
transuranic waste elements. On the other hand, the quantities of these elements, the physical
and chemical forms of the wastes, and the technically sound alternatives for their disposal
are markedly different. In all cases, for both civilian and defense, the final methods
ICI _ selected will have to meet the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)standards (40 CFR 191)
for the disposal of spent fuel- and high-level and TRU wastes. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act
of 1982 mandates a procedure to select the potential repository sites for detailed
characterization.
A comparison of the Hanford waste inventory resulting from chemical processing of about
100,000 metric tons of nuclear reactor fuel with that of a commercial repository containing
70,000 metric tons of spent fuel elements is enlightening. In this comparison, the waste
inventory from 100,000 metric tons of Hanford reactor fuel contains about 4% as much of the
readily transportable (geohydrologically)isotopes 14C, 99Tc', and 129 I°asis contained in
70,000 metric tons of commercial spent fuel-. It contains only 1% as much 90Sr and ' 137 Cs and
about 0.1%.as much of the primary transuranics 239pu., 240 Pu, and 241 Am. The volume of the
Hanford wastes is markedly larger than the civilian wastes cited above--410,000 m 3 of Hanford
wastes as compared to 29,000 m 3 of commercial spent fuel.
The physical and chemical characteristics of existing and potential waste forms
considered in this EIS are highly diverse: liquid waste. in double-shell tanks,
vitrified/canistered wastes (from processed double-shell tank wastes); sludge and salts in
the single-shell tanks; strontium and cesium capsules that are further protected with a.
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