The U.S. Energy Dept. has agreed to pay $925,000 to Washington state, a plumbers’ union local and a watchdog group, and to expedite mitigation steps and new technology in settling a 2015 lawsuit over hazardous vapors at the Hanford nuclear waste cleanup site near Richland, Wash.
The pact reimburses plaintiff costs and sets parameters for new efforts to destroy vapors from stored radioactive materials, but it could restart litigation based on progress in three years, says Bob Ferguson, state attorney general.