And that means that experts at the DOE have looked at this situation for 30 years.
Are you certain that there are no experts on the subject that have looked at this before it even made it to Trump?
Oh, I doubt Trump was directly involved. In the OP title, "Trump" is being used as a synechdoche for the Administration as a whole. But former EPA head Scott Pruitt, who fought the EPA, and acting EPA head Andrew Wheeler, who lobbied against environmental regulations, self-confessedly
do not listen to experts on scientific subjects. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." And now these foxes have been put in charge of the henhouse.
The DOE/EPA has been on something of a campaign against nuclear safety at Hanford.
Limiting safety oversight at the facility.
Fighting the state of Washington over
worker health at the facility.
And now this reclassification of high level waste.
Or maybe I should just ask what is the range of your expertise in this field
I have a MS in physics and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has my name on their big list of everyone who has handled a certain amount of radioactive material. I don't claim any specific expertise on nuclear waste disposal, but I will bet $100 that I know more about the situation than the corporate lobbyist running the EPA.
Work? Of course you
can reclassify high level radioactive waste as low level radioactive waste. But this does not change how dangerous the material is. Handling it unwisely could expose the residents of the state of Washington to unnecessary health risks. The government has made certain promises to the state, and under this Administration, they are weaseling out of them.