Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Democratic Sen. Patty Murray that he’s looking to delay operations at a multibillion-dollar vitrification plant at the Hanford nuclear cleanup site in Washington state, despite public statements signaling otherwise, the senator said.
“Today, Secretary Wright admitted to me during a phone call that the Department of Energy is planning to curb hot commissioning at the Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford — an astonishingly senseless and destructive move and a threat to the entire nuclear cleanup mission at Hanford,” Murray said.
Wright, according to the senator, said he’s considering delaying completion of hot commissioning — or final testing — at the so-called Waste Treatment Plant, a final step before the facility begins turning radioactive waste into glass for disposal.
The facility, built over more than two decades and costing upward of $30 billion, would use heat and sand to turn gallons of toxic waste left over from World War II-era weapons productions into glass. The process of hot commissioning is required to be wrapped up by Oct. 15 under a legally binding consent decree.
Wright, according to the senator, raised safety concerns about the facility, but Murray said that existing records including recent safety reviews and internal DOE documents “do not corroborate his assertion.”
Wright in a statement Thursday reiterated that the agency has made “no changes” to its strategy for Hanford. “Although there are challenges, we are committed to beginning operations by October 15, 2025,” said the secretary.
Murray responded by calling for “real evidence” that the administration will move forward and an explanation for what she said is “conflicting information” she’s received from DOE around hot commissioning at the plant.
The exchange took place just days after POLITICO’s E&E News reported that DOE fired a top official who was overseeing the massive and complex cleanup along the Columbia River. A person with knowledge of the event — granted anonymity — said DOE cited Wright’s desire to go in a “different direction” on Hanford when firing Roger Jarrell, principal deputy assistant secretary at DOE’s Office Environmental Management.
The person also said they believed DOE leadership wanted to “kill” the Waste Treatment Plant even though it was close to being operational.
The Energy secretary in a public statement Tuesday said that information was “inaccurate” and refuted that the agency had made any changes to its plan for cleaning up waste at Hanford.
“Contrary to news reports, the Department of Energy has made no changes to its longstanding commitment to the environmental cleanup of the Hanford site,” Wright said. “DOE is continuing to examine testing and operations of the DFLAW site to ensure waste disposal options are safe, cost-effective, and environmentally sound.”
But a statement from Murray’s office said the secretary “admitted that the Trump administration is actively stalling progress at the plant, where hot commissioning of the Direct-Feed Low Activity Waste (DFLAW) facility must be completed by October 15th to be in compliance with the legally-binding Holistic Agreement.”
The senator has put a hold on President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Environmental Management, Tim Walsh, who is currently awaiting consideration on the Senate floor. Republicans are likely to have enough numbers to confirm him without any Democratic backing.
Murray said the secretary’s comments stand in stark contrast to safety reviews and technical tests showing the plant is ready to be operational. She pointed to a letter from Bechtel National, the prime contractor operating the Waste Treatment Plant, which showed all safety reviews and technical tests for the facility are complete.
Murray also cited internal DOE records that she said show a committee within the agency’s Office of Project Management unanimously endorsed completing the project in July, but the document never obtained necessary approval from Deputy Secretary James Danly.
“Whether Secretary Wright was given bad information or is simply confused about how the vitrification facility works, I can’t say,” said Murray. “But I am not satisfied by his explanation for why DOE has suddenly decided to stall progress on the Waste Treatment Plant.”
Officials in Washington state, where Hanford is located, warned DOE not to change course.
“This decision is a stunning waste of resources, a violation of multiple legal agreements and a slap in the face to the workers who have brought us to this point,” Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) said in a statement. “It’s also right out of Project 2025. We will be challenging this decision. There’s too much at stake for the people of Washington and our environment.”
Washington State Department of Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller added that he’s seen news reports and heard from Murray’s office that DOE has decided to abandon its efforts to commission the Waste Treatment Plant.
“If these reports are accurate, it would violate legally binding agreements. We are now just days away from beginning to treat low-activity radioactive waste at Hanford, and any delay or change in plans would threaten years of work and billions of dollars in investments,” said Sixkiller.
Deadlines and price tags
Front and center in the debate is the 580-square-mile Hanford complex, a site established in the 1940s to house the Manhattan Project and the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons.
The legacy of that work is a toxic landscape with more than 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste held in underground tanks that are now leaking and threatening the Columbia River, a critical source of drinking water in the Pacific Northwest.
Cleanup of the site is now unfolding under an updated legal agreement that DOE, EPA and the Washington State Department of Ecology inked earlier this year, which calls for the vitrification of low-level waste at the Waste Treatment Plant this year and for the processing of high-level waste to start by 2033.
The costly and complex cleanup at Hanford has been dogged with years of legal fights and skepticism over ballooning price tags and technical challenges.
The project made its way into Project 2025, a conservative blueprint that aligns with many of the Trump administration’s policies. That playbook calls for DOE to use cement or grout to treat all low-level waste, including at Hanford. The WTP, however, is designed to turn all of the tank waste, both high level and low level, into glass.
West Coast lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, who opposed Wright’s appointment to lead DOE, have repeatedly pushed the secretary to confirm he will uphold the cleanup of the site under an existing legal framework.
Last year, the Government Accountability Office called on DOE to pause work at the site to rethink how high-level waste is treated and called on Congress to clarify DOE’s authority to do so. DOE argued such a pause would conflict with cleanup milestones.
Completing remediation at the site could cost up to $590 billion and last through 2086, according to a report DOE released earlier this year.
Murray argued that Hanford is the largest and most complex nuclear waste cleanup site in history and said the administration needs to understand that “trying to do nuclear cleanup on the cheap is only more costly and more dangerous in the long run.”
The senator added: “We are closer than we’ve ever been to turning nuclear waste into glass — I won’t let the Trump administration light billions of taxpayer dollars on fire.”
