[CPEO-MEF] Radioactive tank waste at three Energy Department sites

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Natural Resources Defense Council
April 4, 2006

NAS REPORT CRITICIZES DOE'S HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE CLEANUP PROGRAM

Independent Study Confirms NRDC Assessment

A report issued today by the National Academy of Science (NAS) Nuclear 
and Radiation Studies Board raises serious concerns about the Department 
of Energy's plan to dispose of millions of gallons of high level 
radioactive waste (HLW) in nearly 250 underground tanks in South 
Carolina, Washington, Idaho and New York.

The report, titled Tank Waste Retrieval, Processing, and On-site 
Disposal at Three Department of Energy Sites, echoes the concerns voiced 
by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

"The Academy is right on target in criticizing DOE's plans for 
high-level radioactive waste cleanup, which places schedule and 
budgetary concerns over protection of public health and the 
environment," said Dr. Thomas B. Cochran, a nuclear physicist and 
director of NRDC's Nuclear Program.

Nearly two years ago, Congress provided DOE in South Carolina and Idaho 
with the authority to reclassify HLW as "incidental" and bypass the 
Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which mandates that HLW be sent to a geologic 
repository. At the same time, Congress asked the NAS to review DOE's 
cleanup plans for the HLW tanks. Today's 311-page report is the product 
of that request.

"Giving DOE the authority to reclassify highly radioactive waste was 
clearly bad science and bad policy," Cochran said. "Now Congress should 
heed the academy's advice and stop DOE's efforts to dispose of millions 
of curies of cesium in shallow burial at the Savannah River site. And 
Congress should immediately bring DOE's tank cleanup and radioactive 
waste disposal programs under the external regulation by the 
Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and 
the affected states."


Background

Among the key issues addressed by the NAS report are:

* "DOE should decouple its schedule for tank waste retrieval from its 
schedule for tank closure for those tanks that still contain significant 
amounts of radioactive material after initial waste retrieval is completed."

According to NRDC, this means that DOE -- after making its initial 
attempt to remove as much HLW as possible, still has a tank with 
thousands of gallons of HLW containing potentially millions of curies of 
lethal radioactivity -- should not go ahead with the irreversible 
decision of pouring grout on top of the radioactive waste for "final 
closure." NRDC has argued for years that DOE has no technical or even 
financial reason to abandon HLW that will endanger drinking supplies. As 
the NAS states, "Decoupling will enhance future opportunities to remove 
additional radioactive material … as retrieval technologies are improved."

* With respect to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, "The 
Committee has serious reservations about aspects of DOE's plans for tank 
closure, including the point of compliance and assumptions and exposure 
scenarios and waste inventories remaining after tank cleanup. The 
committee is also concerned about DOE's plans to dispose of large 
inventories of radionuclides in the Saltstone Vaults on-site."

According to NRDC, the NAS is expressing serious reservations that DOE 
is measuring potential radioactive doses too far away from the tanks and 
its disposal sites, where the groundwater samples are diluted, in an 
attempt to claim "compliance." Additionally, the NAS has expressed 
serious concerns about the amount of HLW that DOE can abandon in the 
tanks at the Savannah River Site. And finally, the NAS shares NRDC's 
concerns that DOE plans to dispose of millions of curies of radioactive 
cesium in shallow burial at the site.

* With respect to the Hanford Site in Washington, "The committee also 
has reservations about DOE's plans to use bulk vitrification as a 
secondary process for treating low-activity waste for on-site disposal."

According to NRDC, the NAS is echoing NRDC's concerns that DOE's plans 
at Hanford are not protective of the environment and public health.


What now

Congress should immediately halt DOE's actions to reclassify HLW in 
South Carolina, especially those disposal decisions that will be 
irreversible.

Congress also should immediately require external regulation of the 
department's HLW tank cleanup and, specifically, DOE's disposal of 
radionuclides, by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission and the affected states.

Finally, Congress should launch a public debate on an appropriately 
protective cleanup standard for the HLW tanks.



To view the original press release, go to
http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/060404c.asp

To view the National Academy of Sciences report, go to
http://fermat.nap.edu/books/0309101700/html/

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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