Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Group: Water standard for radioactivity unsafe
Nevada officials ponder report's implications for planned Yucca Mountain waste site
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The government is underestimating the health risks from the presence of radioactive particles in drinking water, an environmental science group said in a report it plans to release today.
Nevada officials who have seen the report said it could focus new attention on the safety of groundwater near the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
Advances in science have clarified the dangers of long-lived radioactive particles like plutonium and neptunium that could travel in water where the government conducted atomic bomb activities, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research said.
Such particles concentrate in the bones and deliver doses far higher than previously estimated, according to the institute's analysis.
The institute urged the Environmental Protection Agency to set new standards that the group said would protect human health better.
The present EPA standard for plutonium in drinking water, 15 picocuries per liter, is one hundred times too high, said Arjun Makhijani, institute president and report author. The standard was set in 1976, he said.
Makhijani said Tuesday that public water supplies are not in danger.
Even with tougher standards, "public water systems are not at present contaminated at or near the requested (maximum limit)," the study said.
The more practical effect of the new standards, Makhijani said, would be to guide the Energy Department's cleanup of former nuclear weapons sites.
The study recommended that the department pay for a set of baseline water samples drawn near sites that have plutonium waste or soil contamination.
The sites could include the Savannah River, which divides Georgia and South Carolina, the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon, and the Snake River aquifer in southern Idaho.
Makhijani urged the EPA to use his recommendations in a review of drinking water standards scheduled for next year. The agency did not respond to a request for comment on the report.
Groundwater standards for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain are based on the EPA's safety levels for drinking water, Nevada officials said Tuesday.
If the EPA were to adopt a tighter drinking water standard for radioactive particles, "it could make it harder for the repository to meet the standard over the long term," said Joe Egan, the state's nuclear waste lawyer.
