State of Washington Angry over Delays at Hanford

Washington state will do whatever is necessary to keep the federal government's cleanup of 40 years' worth of radioactive waste on track at the former nuclear weapons production complex at Hanford, warns Gov. Christine Gregoire. “Washington will not sit idly by while the U.S. government breaks its promises to the people of our state and puts our health and resources at risk,” she declared at a Nov. 14 press conference in Seattle. Gregoire called on the Bush Administration to “move forward, without further delay, in getting the Hanford cleanup back on track” or face possible legal action. Although construction of a $5.8 billion radioactive waste treatment facility at Hanford is one-third complete, $200 million in budget cuts proposed by Congress and the White House, reducing funding to $426 million for fiscal 2006, threaten to delay the cleanup by seven or more years to at least 2018, Gregoire and other officials say. A legally binding federal-state order signed in 1989 requires the plant to be operational by 2011.