Plans set to allow the Hanford "glassification" project in Washington state to treat and store nuclear waste appear ready to move forward, after previous reports that the federal Department of Energy was poised to stall the effort, according to the Associated Press. 

In September, the Washington State Standard reported that state officials were "heated" over rumors that the federal government aimed to intervene and disrupt what the AP described as "decades of planning and billions of dollars of investment" in the project, which would essentially turn nuclear waste into glass through "vitrification." The heating process is believed to be safer than older methods for encasing the waste. 

Now — following backlash from those state officials, Tribal leaders, and labor spokespeople — the DOE has indicated it will not stand in the way of the project. However, with the federal government currently in a shutdown as of October 1, there remains some uncertainty as to the path forward. 

Last week, Washington state regulators issued the last permit needed to get the facility operational — which, as the AP described, would allow staffers to "remove more waste from often-leaky underground tanks, mix it in a crucible with additives, and heat it above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit." That would allow the materials to become glass, and while it would remain radioactive, it would be "far more stable to keep in storage, and less likely to seep into the soil or the nearby Columbia River." 

Concerns arose when Washington state Senator Patty Murray said U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright indicated in a phone call with her that he intended to obstruct or even eliminate Hanford altogether, which would leave over 20 million gallons of radioactive waste abandoned before it could be "glassified" ahead of a pre-existing October 15 deadline requiring the DOE to do so, according to the Washington State Standard.

"If these reports are accurate, it would violate legally binding agreements," Casey Sixkiller from the state's Department of Ecology told the news outlet. "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."

The DOE also fired Roger Jarrell, the department's primary overseer of Hanford, in early September. After Washington Governor Bob Ferguson threatened legal action to protect the roughly $30 billion investment in the project, Wright indicated that the plan would continue, and a deputy signed paperwork to move the effort forward.

"Although there are challenges, we are committed to beginning operations by October 15, 2025," Wright said in a statement in September. "As always, we are prioritizing the health and safety of both the workforce and the community as we work to meet our nation's need to safely and efficiently dispose of nuclear waste."

At this point, publicly expressed indications and permits point to the project moving ahead at full steam, but with the federal government in an unrelated shutdown, Ferguson is still pushing to make sure nothing falls apart. 

"Our state has done our part to start up the Waste Treatment Plant," the governor said in a statement. "Now the federal government needs to live up to its responsibilities and clean up what they left behind."

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According to the AP, the DOE said before the government shutdown that it would continue its operations "for one to five days" in the event of a shutdown and then would pause, during any continued shutdown, all work unless "related to the safety of human life and the protection of property." That standard leaves some ambiguity, but the implication is that work that doesn't represent an immediate threat will be paused until the government reopens. 

While nuclear fission has impressive potential as a cleaner source of energy — especially in contrast to conventional fuel-based sources, which release planet-heating pollution into the atmosphere — the process does generate substantial amounts of radioactive waste as an unfortunate byproduct. 

The 177 storage tanks underneath the Hanford facility have been "considered the worst radiological contamination problem in the Western Hemisphere," as the Washington State Standard has described.

Finding ways to neutralize radioactive waste, such as by transforming it into non-radioactive glass, is essential to public safety and to integrating nuclear power more reliably into the energy mix. 

After all, while other low-carbon energy sources, such as solar and wind, are even more cost-effective and safer, nuclear fission is far superior to power generated by burning fossil fuels. Even factoring in the waste, data suggests it's much safer for human health and the environment than gas and coal, as many scientists have said, with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration calculating that "nuclear power prevented an average of over 1.8 million net deaths worldwide between 1971-2009."

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