And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Source: <A HREF="http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071599&ID=s606765&cat="> http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=071599&ID=s606765&cat=</A> =================================================== Nuclear incinerator gets OK from Wyoming Officials say INEEL project a small risk; hearing proposed CHEYENNE, Wyo. _ A proposed nuclear waste incinerator in eastern Idaho would not threaten air quality in Wyoming, state officials said. Dan Olson, Air Quality Division administrator for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said his agency was satisfied with its review of an analysis from the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality. "We didn't find anything that would cause us not to issue a permit or propose to offer a permit in the same conditions," he said. Olson said environmental regulators from both states are trying to arrange a late-August date for a public meeting in Jackson to discuss the proposed waste incinerator at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Some Jackson residents have questioned the effects of the nuclear waste incinerator's emissions on their town, which is downwind from the facility, and other areas in western Wyoming. The Idaho Division of Environmental Quality is allowing Wyoming to review the air quality analysis on behalf of the Jackson residents, including renowned attorney Gerry Spence. But Idaho air quality engineer Mike Simon said his agency would continue the permitting process. "Right now we are reviewing the comments received and making changes where appropriate in the permit," he said. Idaho's proposed permit would allow British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. to begin building the $1.2 billion Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility in the fall. The permit sets limits on more than a dozen emissions, from carbon monoxide and radionuclides to lead and arsenic. The incinerator that would reduce the volume of plutonium-contaminated waste destined for permanent storage in an underground New Mexico dump still requires another state permit and a federal permit. Olson said his division briefly reviewed, among other things, Idaho's requirements, limitations on air pollution and the proposed filtering equipment on the incinerator stack. While there will be radioactive emissions, Olson said, "How much of those might find their way to Jackson," or other parts of western Wyoming, "is a question that you have to answer through modeling." He said the Idaho agency has found that the health risk of the predicted emissions is small, "but it's not nonexistent." "I don't want to minimize anybody's concerns. Exposure to nuclear materials is a very serious thing," Olson said. "I think people have the right to be concerned that the people who are supposed to be taking care of those kinds of things are doing everything properly." The landmark 1995 nuclear waste agreement struck by former Idaho Gov. Phil Batt requires the U.S. Department of Energy to start operating the treatment plant by March 2003. The facility would process about 65,000 cubic meters of waste now stored in decaying barrels and boxes above ground at the INEEL in its first 13 years of operation. Most of the plutonium-contaminated waste stored at the INEEL must be treated in some fashion before being shipped to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Facility would do that, as well as handling up to another 120,000 cubic meters of waste from other federal sites. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
