OLYMPIA -- Washington won't contest a plan by the federal government to send some transuranic wastes to Hanford if the state and Department of Energy can agree by March 1 on how to deal with Hanford's solid radioactive wastes.

DOE and the state made the arrangement late Friday as Washington was on the brink of filing a federal lawsuit on the matter, Gov. Gary Locke announced Monday. U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both D-Wash., also discussed the issue with DOE late last week.

Under the deal, the state will let DOE send 170 barrels of transuranic wastes to Hanford in return for the two sides agreeing on milestones by March 1 to deal with the site's radioactive low-level, transuranic and mixed radioactive-chemical wastes.

Those milestones are to be added to the Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact that governs Hanford's cleanup.

Meanwhile, DOE agreed to an earlier stance -- two barrels of Hanford's transuranic wastes will be shipped out for every barrel imported from another DOE site.

"This allows us to give a little to get a lot in return," said Tom Fitzsimmons, director of the state Department of Ecology.

DOE's Hanford Manager Keith Klein said: " 'A little in, a lot out' about characterizes this agreement."

The first outside transuranic wastes will head to Hanford on Wednesday from a small Battelle site near Columbus, Ohio, and from a small DOE-related lab near San Francisco.

DOE originally planned to start shipping these wastes to Hanford in early November. DOE wants to take transuranic wastes from small sites unable to check and repack these materials -- and send them to Hanford, which has those capabilities. Hanford will store those wastes until they are shipped to a permanent underground storage site near Carlsbad, N.M.

But the state objected.

Washington's Department of Ecology didn't like DOE sending outside wastes to Hanford without the state knowing the overall volumes and timetables of future shipments. The state wants a legal say over those factors.

Also, the state didn't like Hanford not having timetables for dealing with its own transuranic, mixed and low-level wastes in the Tri-Party Agreement.

Talks dragged out because DOE didn't want to get locked into numerous enforceable deadlines. And Washington and DOE have different interpretations on whether a state can regulate federal transuranic wastes. DOE was reluctant to set a precedent with Washington that other states might try to copy.

State Attorney General Christine Gregoire said Washington's threat of a filing a lawsuit Monday prompted DOE to reach Friday's agreement. "I have the scars to prove it," Klein said.

Fitzsimmons said two more factors will come into play this spring.

One factor is that DOE recently agreed to redo a draft environmental impact study on Hanford's transuranic, mixed and low-level wastes. A draft unveiled a few months ago was heavily criticized because it was too skimpy to be effective. The state expects DOE to produce another draft around March that will include estimates of how much wastes other DOE sites might send to Hanford.

A second factor is that DOE, Washington and other states with DOE sites might swap information on their waste problems this spring. That is supposed to clarify which sites would ship what volumes to which receiving sites to help the national nuclear cleanup effort.

Meanwhile, the new DOE-Washington agreement to be reached by March 1 will address Hanford's:

n Transuranic wastes, which are junk in 55-gallon barrels. These are highly radioactive and take thousands to millions of years to decay. Hanford has 37,000 barrels buried on-site. Hanford also has a facility to examine those barrels and their contents to make sure they meet the New Mexico repository's requirements and to fix those barrels if needed.

n Buried mixed wastes. Right now, technology has not been perfected to neutralize chemical-laced radioactive wastes. Hanford is expected to produce 70,000 cubic meters of its own mixed wastes and receive another 140,000 cubic meters from other DOE sites.

n Low-level wastes, which are slightly radioactive junk in 55-gallon barrels. Hanford still has to examine most of its low-level wastes and fix the barrels before reburying them. Hanford is expected to produce 140,000 cubic meters of its own low-level wastes and receive up to another 200,000 cubic meters for other DOE sites.

In return, Hanford has the state's OK to receive 115 barrels of remote-handled transuranic wastes and 10 barrels of contact-handled transuranic wastes from Ohio, plus 15 to 34 barrels of remote-handled wastes and 11 barrels of contact-handled wastes from California over the next several months.

"Contact-handled" means a worker in protective clothes can touch the barrel. "Remote-handled" means the wastes are so radioactive that only remote-control equipment can touch the barrels. The New Mexico site does not have a federal license yet to accept remote-handled transuranic wastes. And Hanford needs to improve its capabilities to process remote-handled wastes.

The Carlsbad site is supposed get its remote-handled waste license between 2004 and 2006.

Fitzsimmons said Hanford is supposed to ship the imported remote-handled transuranic wastes soon after that. But Gerald Pollet, director of Heart of America Northwest, contended imported remote-handled wastes likely will stay at Hanford into the next decade.

Pollet contended most imported wastes will be stored in unlined trenches in central Hanford, increasing the risk of rainwater sweeping radioactive substances into the ground water.

Meanwhile, DOE spokeswoman Colleen Clark said imported transuranic and mixed wastes will be stored in above-ground 200 West Area buildings or inside T Plant. Imported low-level wastes will be buried in concrete vaults inside trenches, she said.

Pollet also said Heart of America has obtained a copy of a DOE proposal to ship remote-handled transuranic wastes to Hanford from three DOE-related labs in California and the Nevada Test Site.

Pollet said: "DOE picked the two easiest sites (with Columbus and San Francisco) to snooker Washington to allow wastes in, and get the camel's nose under the tent (to make it easier for DOE to add extra waste shipments to Hanford)."

However, Clark said no plan currently is in the works for Hanford to import wastes from additional sites. But if DOE believes in the future that it makes sense for Hanford to receive wastes from other small sites, the agency will evaluate that possibility on a case-by-case basis, she said.