And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
NUCLEAR WASTE MAY BE OK FOR TRANSFER
OFFICIALS AT NEW MEXICO PLANT ARE WORKING TO AVOID TREATMENT
Associated Press
June 13, 1999
TWIN FALLS, Idaho -- Waste stored at the Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory may not need any treatment to be accepted at a New
Mexico repository for radioactive material.
U.S. Energy Department officials at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near
Carlsbad, N.M., are trying to get a permit to dispose of certain toxic
chemicals, along with radioactive waste, without treatment.
If successful, mixed chemical and radioactive waste would need no
treatment to be shipped to WIPP, plant spokesman Donovan Mager said. The
first shipment of INEEL radioactive waste reached the repository in April.
The Energy Department last year signed a $1 billion contract to build a
mixed-waste treatment plant at the Idaho site. It would handle up to 185,000
cubic meters of plutonium-contaminated waste.
The incinerator idea has raised concerns among critics who question if
the filters would prevent the release of dangerous chemicals or radiation
from the smokestack.
Without the permit the federal agency is seeking, the only acceptable
method of treating the waste which contains PCBs -- about 52,500 cubic feet
-- is incineration. PCBs come from old electrical transformers and are a
suspected carcinogen.
About one-third of the 2.3 million cubic feet of stored
plutonium-contaminated waste at the INEEL is not radioactive enough to
qualify for disposal at WIPP. Scientists in Idaho say treatment would blend
the waste so it all meets the requirements.
Meanwhile, federal officials in New Mexico are labeling waste treatment
at the INEEL as marginal.
That is the conclusion of an annual audit of the handling and labeling
of contaminated waste stored in Idaho and slated for movement to WIPP.
``The total program has been determined to be marginal on
implementation, adequacy and effectiveness,'' said the May 31 weekly
newsletter from the Energy Department's Carlsbad office.
The 21 problems cited were with record-keeping and quality control, and
represent no threat to safety, said Kent Hunter, assistant Carlsbad manager.
INEEL officials hope to have all the solutions figured out and approved
by month's end. That means Carlsbad could recertify Idaho's waste handling,
INEEL spokesman Brad Bugger said. He was unsure how that would affect future
shipment schedules.
The next deadline for moving INEEL waste to WIPP is to transport 100,000
cubic feet by the end of 2002. If the INEEL fails to meet that mark, it
would be prevented by a 1995 court order from sending spent fuel from
foreign reactors to Idaho for storage.
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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