Group Threatens Lawsuit to Delay Hanford Nuclear Reactor Overhaul

An environmental group says it will sue if necessary to prevent the Energy Department from spending $50 million on repairing its largest plutonium-production reactor without first conducting a major environmental study.

The department announced last week that it will close the aging reactor on the Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Wash., for six months in early January to make safety improvements recommended by a panel of six consultants.

In a letter to Energy Secretary John S. Herrington, the Natural Resources Defense Council said last week that the plan is a “major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment” and requires an environmental impact statement.

The reactor, which began operation in 1963, has never been subject to a 1969 federal law requiring such environmental studies. All six of DOE’s consultants concluded that the Hanford reactor, already three years beyond its planned operating life, is deteriorating rapidly and cannot be operated safely much beyond 1990.

Energy Department officials had no immediate comment.