Trump limits access of board overseeing safety at Hanford site

[Marlin]

    Not sure what to think about this one, I don't know enough about the boards responsibilities for oversight to comment on that. The article mentions the change in classification of waste making it sound like unsafe cutting of corners but if I remember right they changed the classification from purely based on the source of the waste to classifying the waste by sampling which sounds like common sense to me.

Trump limits access of board overseeing safety at Hanford site


https://crosscut.com/2019/06/trump-limits-access-board-overseeing-safety-hanford-site?fbclid=IwAR3wrIGKwGQG0qRdysoasXkyq0AAUAZFhr-c1TZ_sXvJsaW6UiP_p6dq4RE

[TechSuper]

This appears to be another way for the current administration to remove public interaction with on-going government run and controlled facilities that could potentially impact the environment. It has long been known that there is extreme risk to the local environment, i.e., Columbia River Basin, if the waste material contained in the Hanford Tank Farms is not processed and controlled. At least with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board there is a mechanism to monitor and identify engineering and safety problems that could exist and to bring these issues to light in public forums. The management at the WTP (Vit Plant) is really screwed up and continue to make really bad decisions when it comes to dealing with on-going design and operational issues. As with the current administration, management talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. This will continue to be a nightmare and most probably will deal with low-level waste but not the high-level waste.

[Marlin]

This appears to be another way for the current administration to remove public interaction with on-going government run and controlled facilities that could potentially impact the environment. It has long been known that there is extreme risk to the local environment, i.e., Columbia River Basin, if the waste material contained in the Hanford Tank Farms is not processed and controlled. At least with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board there is a mechanism to monitor and identify engineering and safety problems that could exist and to bring these issues to light in public forums. The management at the WTP (Vit Plant) is really screwed up and continue to make really bad decisions when it comes to dealing with on-going design and operational issues. As with the current administration, management talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. This will continue to be a nightmare and most probably will deal with low-level waste but not the high-level waste.

The board is a government advisory entity for the Secretary of energy and the President, not sure how that affects public involvement that would be stakeholder organizations. The DOE is schizophrenic when it comes to production and regulation when it is responsible for both so I do see a conflict but I still don't see the boards role as a regulator or public agent.

My    it would not be the first time an agency was tasked with something not in it's charter but it could be removal of redundant regulators.

[TechSuper]

That is true, but the local governments and the environmental groups throughout the state of Washington rely heavily on the results and reports of the DNFSB for information relative to inspections and investigations that the Board performs. What actual enforcement policy they have is probably none but the fact that they have access to potential issue generating situations and how these are taken by the public oversight groups might be an issue.