Thursday, May 20, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
AG seeks states' help to halt nuclear shipments
Ohio waste supposed to go to test site
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Brian Sandoval is attempting to recruit other states to help Nevada head off shipments of nuclear waste from a closed uranium processing factory in Ohio.
Sandoval said in a letter Wednesday that residents along shipping routes may be subjected to "significant health risks" from a special class of radioactive material the Department of Energy has proposed to send from its Fernald plant to the Nevada Test Site.
The letter was sent to attorneys general in 16 states along two major interstate highway routes between Ohio and Nevada, Sandoval spokesman Tom Sargent said.
Nevada has objected to the Energy Department shipping 153 million pounds of radioactive waste that has accumulated in silos at Fernald, located 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati. Plans call for 3,750 flatbed truck shipments over 18 months.
Two of the 20-foot-tall concrete silos contain 240,030 cubic feet of potent waste materials tainted with by-products of high-grade uranium that was processed at the factory. The third silo, from which initial shipments were to be made, contains 137,700 cubic feet of low-level thorium waste.
Sandoval has threatened to sue DOE, contending the waste was unsafe for disposal at the test site, where the government has buried 21 million cubic feet of lower level nuclear waste since the 1970s.
The material is different from the high-level nuclear waste the Energy Department has proposed to bury at Yucca Mountain.
DOE officials have promised Nevada 45 days notice before starting to ship the Fernald waste. Nevada officials said this week they were hearing from sources in Ohio that such a notice will be issued "in the very near term."
A DOE spokesman at the Fernald plant said he did not know when the department will issue its notification.
"We're in consultation with stakeholders and regulators to determine what the path is going to be on the silos," said Gary Stegner.
Sandoval warned the Energy Department in a letter Tuesday not to begin moving waste from any of the silos until the burial dispute is resolved.
Nevada has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to step in and assume control of the material. The state also is preparing to file a lawsuit to challenge the shipments soon after it receives a 45-day notice of DOE's intentions.
