15 February 2010

Senator Ron Wyden's (D-Ore) Statement on Hanford Cleanup

Portland, OR - Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore) issued the following statement (through staff) at the 2/10/2010 public hearing in Portland on the U.S. Department of Energy's draft environmental impact statement for cleaning up storage tanks and managing waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation:

"The Department of Energy has been working on Hanford clean-up for more than 20 years, and at best they have another 20 years to go, and probably a lot more.  Now, the DOE is proposing to bring even more radioactive waste from other DOE clean-up sites to Hanford for disposal, making this toxic cesspool even worse.  That puts Oregon at risk twice: First when the waste is trucked through Oregon and again when it seeps back via the Columbia River.  If I have said it once, I have said it dozens of times: Hanford should not be turned into a 'national sacrifice zone.'  I am not satisfied with the progress at Hanford and I am absolutely opposed to DOE bringing more waste to Hanford since they have been unable and unwilling to clean-up the radioactive mess that is already there."

2 comments:

  1. If even people in the government, like Ron Wyden, oppose the DOE's proposed plan for Hanford usage, we are the people of Washington and Oregon not more opposed or more active in their opposition to the site?

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  2. What a powerful statement! We need Washington's elected officials to follow suit.

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