Spokane mayor Lisa Brown is raising red flags about a plan to move liquid nuclear waste from Hanford through her city. 

She wrote a letter to the federal Department of Energy, the EPA, and Washington’s Department of Ecology asking those agencies to reconsider a plan for trucks filled with the waste to travel Eastbound I-90 out of Washington on their way to Utah and Texas. 

The 2,000 gallons set to be moved are just a tiny portion of the 56 million gallons sitting under the Hanford site, north of the Tri-Cities, that needs to be disposed of. 

This may feel like a Cold War-era legacy but today, nuclear energy is making a comeback. And as the Hanford story shows, even with all of this new buzz around nuclear, there is still no long-term place to put all the radioactive byproduct.

Guests:

John Stang, reporter covering Hanford for Cascade PBS

Allison Macfarlane, director at the University of British Columbia’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and a former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Links:

Crosscut: Spokane doesn’t want feds to truck nuclear waste through the city

Scientific American: Nuclear Waste Is Piling Up. Does the U.S. Have a Plan?

 

Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes

Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. 

Spokane mayor Lisa Brown is raising red flags about a plan to move liquid nuclear waste from Hanford through her city.&nbsp;
<a href="https://my.spokanecity.org/news/releases/2024/09/18/mayor-opposes-state-federal-agencies-plans-to-ship-liquid-radioactiv/">She wrote a letter to the federal Department of Energy, the EPA, and Washington&rsquo;s Department of Ecology asking those agencies to reconsider a plan for trucks filled with the waste to travel Eastbound I-90</a> out of Washington on their way to Utah and Texas.&nbsp;<a href="https://my.spokanecity.org/news/releases/2024/09/18/mayor-opposes-state-federal-agencies-plans-to-ship-liquid-radioactiv/"></a>
The 2,000 gallons set to be moved are just a tiny portion of the 56 million gallons sitting under the Hanford site, north of the Tri-Cities, that needs to be disposed of.&nbsp;
This may feel like a Cold War-era legacy but today, nuclear energy is making a comeback. And as the Hanford story shows, even with all of this new buzz around nuclear, there is still no long-term place to put all the radioactive byproduct.
Guests:
John Stang, reporter covering Hanford for Cascade PBS
Allison Macfarlane, director at the University of British Columbia&rsquo;s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and a former chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Links:
Crosscut: <a href="https://www.cascadepbs.org/environment/2024/12/spokane-doesnt-want-feds-truck-nuclear-waste-through-city">Spokane doesn&rsquo;t want feds to truck nuclear waste through the city</a>
Scientific American: <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nuclear-waste-is-piling-up-does-the-u-s-have-a-plan/">Nuclear Waste Is Piling Up. Does the U.S. Have a Plan?</a>
&nbsp;
Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to <a href="http://kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes">kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes</a>
Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.&nbsp;

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