APPENDIX A: REQUEST FOR STUDY
Board on Radioactive Waste Management
National Research Council
2001 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W. 456 Harris Building Washington, D.C.20007Dear Dr. Kavanaugh:
The purpose of this letter is to provide information on the Hanford Tank Waste Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and request comments on this document from the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Remediation of Buried and Tank Waste (the Committee).
The EIS will evaluate the environmental impacts of a broad range of options for addressing the waste in the Hanford tanks. Much of the information contained in the EIS will be based on environmental sampling data, Department of Energy's understanding of tank contents, and models which predict the movement of tank waste into and through the environment.
Our objective in requesting the NRC to review the EIS is for this knowledgeable group to aid in identifying significant inconsistencies, over-simplifications, or errors. We believe this is an appropriate task for the Committee because over the past three years the Committee has become familiar with: (1) the Hanford geology and hydrology and other wastes on the site, (2) the objectives of the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) program and specific programmatic documentation, and (3) the concerns of stakeholders, including the State of Washington and the Environmental Protection Agency, and the commitments contained in the Tri-Party Agreement. Knowledge of all of these factors is key because the EIS will be used as the basis for future Hanford tank waste management decisions.
The EIS will include several hundred pages of data and calculations. A number of technical consultants and experts will be reviewing the EIS to ensure the data was correctly incorporated into the models, the results were correctly interpreted, and uncertainties identified. We welcome any comments in these areas the Committee (or its individual members) may care to offer.
We expect to provide the TWRS EIS to NRC by mid-March, and would like your review completed by July 31, 1996.
We hope you will be able to participate in reviewing this document. If you have any questions, please contact John Lehr at 301-903-8621.
Environmental Management