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Nuke Notes Revisited
Victory on the Low Level
Radioactive Waste Front!
by Tori Woodard
Opponents of Low Level Radioactive Waste (LLRW) dumps saw two victories last
fall and signs of another victory coming up soon.
On October 22, 1998, the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commissiion
(TNRCC) voted to deny a license for a proposed LLRW dump in Sierra Blanca,
Texas, citing inadequate studies on geology and socioeconomics.
Dump opponents attribute their victory to cross-border organizing that galvanized
resistance in Mexico.
The Save Sierra Blanca Coalition has vowed to fight any dump proposal in
the Southwest and Mexico. They will fight Waste Control Specialists' bid
to open a LLRW dump at their hazardous waste facility in Andrews, Texas.
They have also joined the campaign to save Ward Valley, California.
On December 8, 1998, US Ecology removed its generator and weather station from Ward Valley and closed its office in nearby Needles, saying they could no longer justify the expense of maintaining them to their stockholders. Company spokesperson Scott Peyron said US Ecology still intends to operate a LLRW dump in Ward Valley and would pay its $250,000 licensing fee in January 1999. However, the president of American Ecology (US Ecology's parent company) told the Wall Street Journal on January 6 that they might be willing to walk away from Ward Valley if the price is right.
Readers can help finish off this dump project by asking California Governor
Gray Davis to withdraw California's land application for the land in Ward
Valley and end the state's lawsuits regarding Ward Valley. Contact him at
Office of the Governor, State Capitol Building, Sacramento CA 95814. Phone:
916/445-2841. Fax: 916/445-4633.
On December 21, 1998, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
denied US Ecology's application for a license to build a LLRW facility in
Boyd County, Nebraska, because the proposed site is in a wetlands. Nebraska
is the host state for the Central Interstate Compact, which also includes
Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
South Carolina Governor-elect Jim Hodges' transition subcommittee on
environmental issues has recommended that the LLRW disposal site at Barnwell
close its doors to other states. In 1993 South Carolina withdrew from the
seven-state Southeastern Compact because the compact had failed to build
a substitute for the thirty-year-old Barnwell dump. Since then Barnwell has
been accepting waste from around the United States, and South Carolina has
been charging a tax of $235 per cubic foot on the waste to help pay for school
improvements and scholarships. However, the revenue has never met the projections
of outgoing governor David Beasley.
US Ecology called for repealing the LLRW Policy Act in September 1998 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee and in December 1998 press releases. The LLRW Policy Act created the current compact system, in which each state is responsible for its own radioactive waste and can form a compact with other states to dispose of it.
US Ecology operates a LLRW dump for the Northwestern Compact on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation next to Richland, Washington. Presumably if the LLRW Policy Act were repealed, the Richland dump could receive waste from states that are not in the Northwest Compact.
Hanford Education Action League (HEAL) is opposed to shipping out-of-compact
waste to Richland. The reader may contact them at (509) 326-3370.
The "Mobile Chernobyl" bill was re-introduced in Congress in early January
1999 as bill number HR 45. It would allow spent fuel rods from the nation's
nuclear reactors to be transported through 43 states (within one half mile
of over 50 million Americans) and put on a parking lot in the hot desert
sun next to the stalled permanent repository at Yucca Mountain. It is important
to let your Congressperson know as soon as possible how you feel about this
bill.
U.S. nuclear weapons, which are still on alert despite the end of the Cold War, are susceptible to Year 2000 computer problems. The Department of Defense will only be able to fix about one-half of its Y2K bugs before January 1, 2000. We must not take the chance of a computer malfunction causing a missile to fire accidentally or self-destruct in its silo. Demand that President Clinton de-alert the nation's nuclear warheads before December 31, 1999. Call (202) 456-1414 or e-mail: president@whitehouse.gov.
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