The Columbia Generating Station (CGS) is located on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (HNR) in south central Washington State. The CGS started producing electricity for the Washington grid in December of 1984. It generates one billion one hundred and ninety million watt of electricity which represents about ten percent of the electricity generated in the state. It is the only commercial nuclear power station in the state of Washington. The CGS is owned and operated by Energy Northwest (EN), a not-profit joint operating agency.
Also on the HNR, U.S. Ecology, Inc. operates the Commercial Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (LLRW). This facility accepts low level radioactive waste, some of it mixed with nonradioactive chemicals, from hospitals, universities, laboratories, nuclear power plants and other institutions for landfill disposal. The CGS occasionally sends low-level radioactive waste, such as rags, protective clothing and tools, and filters to the LLRW.
Last November, a cask containing contaminated filters from routine vacuuming of the used fuel pool at the CGS was driven on a flatbed truck ten miles to the LLRW. The cask is seven feet tall and six feet in diameter. It weighs about forty five thousand pounds.
When the cask arrived at the disposal site, it was routinely checked for radiation. The cask was found to be emitting seven times as much radiation as was claimed on the shipping manifest. The staff at the disposal site was forced by regulations to reject the cask. The cask was then driven back the ten miles to the reactor site at the CGS. The cask remains at the CGS site for now.
A day after the cask was rejected at the disposal site, the Washington State Department of Health notified that because of the incorrect information on the shipping manifest, the permit for the CGS to transfer radioactive waste from the reactor site to the disposal site was temporarily suspended. In order for the suspension of the permit to be cancelled, EN will have to draft a plan with a list of corrections to be made to operating procedures to insure that the mistake is not repeated. Washington state officials will have to approve the plan. In addition, there will have to be an onsite inspection of the CGS.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that a three member team was being sent this week to the CGS to conduct a detailed inspection of the plant and the procedures for handling radioactive waste.
An EN representative said that although the radiation level of the cask sent to the disposal site was much higher than stated on the manifest, the radiation level was still within acceptable safety limit. He also said that the written correction plan should be finished this week but, because of the holidays, it might take up to a month for the permit to be restored. He also said that there was sufficient space to store the cask and other radioactive waste until the suspension of the permit is cancelled.
