Over the summer of 2025, 800 Riverkeeper members urged the U.S. Dept. of Energy (Energy) to treat the soils beneath the 324 Building as high level waste, and 72 people attended the public meeting and voiced strong concerns about worker safety, groundwater, and building demolition. The public process failed to disclose any information about demolition plans, despite the real airborne risk that demolition poses to workers, the public, and the environment.
What’s New Since August?
The Good News
Modeling done by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) showed that even if the 324 Building were removed, under normal precipitation rates, it would take 150 years for the radioactive contamination to reach groundwater.
The Bad News
It looks like Energy had this modeling from PNNL for over a year, which means they did not make the information available to the public, nor did they reference it during the public meeting. It also looks like Energy failed to ask PNNL to model for water intrusion caused by the use of dust suppression methods during any building demolition process.
What’s Next?
Now, draft documents suggest that open air demolition of the 324 Building is in the works. However, new information and modeling, which was never disclosed to the public during the public comment period, show that urgency may not be in the public’s best interest.
What’s the rush to knock down the building if the groundwater is not threatened and virtually self-contained? As it stands, the building acts as a shield: blocking workers from lethally radioactive soil and blocking that soil from increased water intrusion. Why proceed, instead of allowing for radioactive decay (in this case 30 years), which could greatly reduce worker exposure and the potential for airborne release?
Demolition of the 324 Building poses a real risk for an air borne radioactive release: close to the Columbia River, Richland, and workers. So far, the public has been cut out of the demolition plans. Sign the petition below to demand government transparency.
Dear U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
I strongly support efforts to prioritize worker safety, and to pace the work at the 324 Building in a way that is realistic and responsive to workers’ experience. I am deeply concerned that the U.S. Department of Energy (Energy) is pursuing a plan that puts workers, the public, and the Columbia River at great risk of an airborne radioactive release and sets the stage to store highly radioactive waste onsite.
Modeling that was withheld from the public during the comment period in August 2025, show that the radioactive contamination below the 324 building is not an immediate threat to groundwater. Additionally, demolition plans were withheld from the public during this time as well. This information is critical in determining the risks of Energy’s proposed cleanup plan amendments.
In light of this new information, I am concerned that Energy is making a rash decision to demolish the building, in order to stamp a “cleaned up” label on the 300 Area and open it up to development, sacrificing real clean up and public safety.
I demand that Energy hold a public meeting prior to the finalization of the 300 Area cleanup plan to disclose demolition plans and answer public questions. Secrecy is not the mission of the Hanford Nuclear Site, clean up is, and it is high time that Energy remembers this.
Sincerely,
Read the hard-hitting comments submitted by Tribes, Oregon, and NGOs: