Wright denies reports of DOE plans to axe Hanford’s WTP

Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a statement on September 9 denying reports that the Department of Energy plans to terminate the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WTP) at the Hanford Site in Washington state.

The statement is in apparent response to a report by Politico's E&E News on the firing of Roger Jarrell, who since April had been serving as acting assistant secretary for the DOE's Office of Environmental Management. The report quotes an unnamed source as saying that the DOE wants "to kill WTP altogether."

Under a revised schedule agreed on by the DOE, Washington State Department of Ecology, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2024, Hanford was to complete hot commissioning of the WTP's Low-Activity Waste (LAW) Facility by August 1 of this year. As of yet, the DOE has not indicated when it will complete commissioning of the facility, which is intended to vitrify (stabilize in glass) Hanford's low-level waste through the department's direct-feed low-activity waste (DFLAW) initiative.

The statement: "Contrary to news reports, the Department of Energy has made no changes to its longstanding commitment to the environmental cleanup of the Hanford Site. DOE is continuing to examine testing and operations of the DFLAW site to ensure waste disposal options are safe, cost-effective, and environmentally sound. Across the entire department, we are actively working to improve the safety and efficacy of the important work we do each and every day," Wright wrote.