Update: WA governor vows challenge to Hanford plant delay. Feds say it will start

Gov. Bob Ferguson plans to challenge any decision that changes the current plan to start turning radioactive waste into a stable glass form at the Hanford vitrification plant for disposal.

Ferguson and Casey Sixkiller, the director of the Washington state Department of Ecology, expect to travel to the Tri-Cities for a Friday news conference to discuss the vitrification plant, the governor’s office said.

Ferguson released a statement Thursday morning after U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, said Wednesday evening that Energy Secretary Chris Wright had admitted to actively stalling startup of the massive Waste Treatment Plant, or vit plant, at the Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington.

“This decision is a stunning waste of resources, a violation of multiple legal agreements and a slap in the face to the workers who have brought us to this point,” Ferguson said.

“We will be challenging this decision,” he said. “There’s too much at stake for the people of Washington and our environment.”

However, Thursday afternoon, Wright told Washington state officials that DOE has made no changes to its plans or strategy for treating Hanford’s radioactve waste.

“Although there are challenges, we are committed to beginning operations by October 15, 2025,” Wright said in a statement.

“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,” he said.

But Murray remained skeptical.

She responded with a statement saying that “when it comes to this administration, actions speak louder than words.”

“I need to see real evidence that this administration is moving forward on our decades-long effort to turn nuclear waste into glass at Hanford,” she said. “I also need an explanation for the conflicting information I have gotten from the Department over the last 48 hours. And I need the Deputy Secretary to sign off on key documents so the completion of hot commissioning at the Waste Treatment Plant can move forward.”

About the vitrification plant

Construction started on the vitrification plant 23 years ago, and it is required to finally begin treating radioactive waste by a federal court consent decree deadline of Oct. 15.

The initial treatment will be in a process called “hot commissioning,” in which radioactive waste will be brought into the vit plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility and contractor Bechtel National will demonstrate that it can glassify the waste to required standards.

Murray said Wright told her during a phone conversation that the Department of Energy “is planning to curb hot commissioning.”

She called that “an astonishing, senseless and destructive move and a threat to the entire nuclear cleanup mission at Hanford.”

About $30 billion has been spent to date on construction, testing and commissioning of the vitrification plant in central Hanford, Murray said. That includes an $18 billion contract with Bechtel National.

Construction is continuing on the plant to prepare to start to treat the most radioactive waste stored in underground tanks by a federal court deadline of 2033.

The vit plant is one of the top employers in the Tri-Cities, with an annual payroll of about $350 million and nearly 3,000 employees.

At the start of 2025, after about four years of negotiations with the state of Washington, an agreement was finalized to start treating low activity radioactive waste this year and high level radioactive waste eight years later.

The state and DOE also agreed that in addition to vitrifying waste, DOE would turn some of the less radioactive waste into concrete-like grout. That would allow waste to be emptied sooner from underground tanks, some of which have leaked waste into the soil and others that are at risk of leaking.

80-year-old radioactive waste

The 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear site has 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste in underground tanks from chemically processing irradiated uranium to remove plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.

Some of the waste has been stored for as long as 80-years in leak-prone tanks that sit above groundwater that is slowly moving toward the Columbia River, which flows through the Hanford site.

Both grout and vitrification would leave waste radioactive, but in a stable, solid form for disposal.

The glassified waste would be disposed of in a lined landfill at Hanford, but grouted waste would be sent to Utah or Texas for disposal.

The state of Washington is concerned that grouting is not as protective as vitrification, and it has not agreed to allow grouted waste to be disposed of at Hanford, given the site’s geology and its groundwater.

Murray also has been highly critical of any delays or halt to startup of the vitrification plant.

She has responded to talk of changes to tank waste treatment by placing a hold on President Trump’s nomination of Tim Walsh, a Colorado real estate developer, to be assistant secretary of energy.

“We are closer than we’ve ever been to turning nuclear waste into glass,” she said. “I won’t let the Trump administration light billions of taxpayer dollars on fire.”

This story was originally published September 11, 2025 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Update: WA governor vows challenge to Hanford plant delay. Feds say it will start."