Federal judge strikes down Hanford nuclear-waste initiative
A federal judge Monday struck down a voter-approved initiative that would have prohibited the federal government from shipping nuclear waste to Hanford, ruling the law unconstitutionally infringes on federal prerogatives.
The ruling isn't likely to change anything, at least anytime soon. Initiative 297 hasn't been enforced while the case was pending, and a different lawsuit has suspended waste shipments to Hanford for now.
I-297, approved by Washington voters in 2004 with more votes than any previous statewide measure, would have blocked a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plan to make Hanford the permanent disposal site for some low-level radioactive waste and low-level "mixed" waste that is both radioactive and hazardous.
But U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald of Yakima agreed with the federal government's lawsuit against I-297 that it has pre-empted the field of nuclear-materials regulation. He said the initiative violates the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, as well as its prohibition against state interference with interstate commerce.
"If other states start passing legislation similar to [I-297], the simple fact is that DOE will not be moving waste anywhere among its nationwide sites as it proposes to do as part of its nationwide cleanup program," McDonald wrote in a 62-page ruling.
"Decisions which need to be made at a national level addressing national concerns cannot be trumped by protectionist regulations enacted by individual states," the judge wrote.
Gerry Pollet of Heart of America Northwest, the Hanford watchdog group that sponsored I-297, said he was disappointed but not surprised. He acknowledged it's unlikely to result in any immediate changes at Hanford, one of the world's most contaminated sites.
Continue reading this article from the Seattle Times:
Federal judge strikes down Hanford nuclear-waste initiative
