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Third Hanford Deadline to be Missed by Staff The Columbian, Septembert 23, 2013

RICHLAND -- The U.S. Department of Energy has notified state officials that a third Hanford nuclear waste tank will likely not be emptied by the Sept. 30 deadline.

The Tri-City Herald reported Tuesday that the Energy Department under a 2010 court order is supposed to have 16 tanks in the group called the C Tank Farm emptied by Sept. 30.

The consent decree set deadlines for emptying waste from one group of Hanford's 149 leak-prone single-walled tanks into sturdier double-shell tanks. The decree also set deadlines for building the Hanford vitrification plant to treat the waste for disposal.

The Energy Department earlier notified the state that all remaining deadlines for the Hanford vitrification plant are at risk.

Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons and now is cleaning up the wastes.