New cleanup deadlines sought for central portion of Hanford site

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy and its Hanford Nuclear Reservation regulatory agencies want new legal deadlines to clean up radioactive waste in the central portion of the site.

They say existing deadlines cannot be met at the nation's most polluted nuclear weapons site.

Extending some deadlines by almost a decade will be discussed at a public meeting Wednesday in the Tri-Cities, and at meetings later this month in Seattle, Portland and Hood River, Oregon.

The Tri-City Herald reports there have been more than 450 changes to the Tri-Party Agreement that governs the Hanford cleanup in the past 26 years.

State and federal environmental regulators say they have known for some time that deadlines for cleanup of central Hanford cannot be met.

Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons.