Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : 05:42 AM ET 12/10/99 Radioactive Waste Sites Proposed http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562529217-d3c By MARK JEWELL Associated Press Writer SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) _ The Energy Department plans to designate Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation and the Nevada Test Site as primary permanent disposal sites for low-level and mixed low-level radioactive wastes. The decision, which the Energy Department planned to announce today, would not be final for another month. The designations would make formal a situation that has existed for several years, said Guy Schein, an Energy Department spokesman at Hanford. Both the Hanford site in south-central Washington and the Nevada facility 65 miles north of Las Vegas already dispose of low-level and mixed low-level wastes generated on-site or shipped from other Energy Department operations. Those wastes typically include such items as old lab equipment, used protective clothing and contaminated soil. ``This is a continuation of a practice that's been going on for years,'' Schein said Thursday. An Energy Department review concluded the Hanford and Nevada sites continue to be the best locations for disposal in terms of cost and environmental considerations, Schein said. Some Energy Department sites, including those at Los Alamos, N.M.; Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Savannah River, S.C., would continue to dispose of as much of their own low-level waste as practical. The Hanford nuclear site made plutonium for the nation's nuclear arsenal until the 1980s and is now being cleaned up as the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation. Schein said he did not know if Hanford's designation is likely to increase the amount of DOE wastes shipped to the site. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<> Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<>
