AG office wants in on NRC hearing

AG office wants in on NRC hearing
By Ruth Friedberg
Odessa American
April 21, 2004

LEA COUNTY, N.M. — Concerns about how a proposed uranium enrichment facility near Eunice, N.M., will dispose of its waste have prompted the New Mexico Attorney General's Office and others to file for standing in an upcoming Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing on the plant.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not set a date for the hearing yet.

Washington, D.C.-based organizations Public Citizen and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service have filed a combined petition with the NRC. The New Mexico Attorney General's Office has filed separately as has the New Mexico Environment Department.

"The waste is really the concern," said Michael Mariotte, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington.

Mariotte said people fear waste from the plant will stay on the site and be a danger to them. He said waste from the plant will be UF6, or uranium hexafluoride, a dangerous substance.

According to a news release from Public Citizen and the organizations joined with it, "the license application presented by LES (Louisiana Energy Services) is replete with inaccuracies and blatant omissions."

"We intend to call LES to task on these deficiencies," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Energy and Environment program. Marshall Cohen, vice president of communications and government for LES, which wants to build the National Enrichment Facility near Eunice, said the corporation is analyzing the petitions to intervene and will be responding to the issues raised in them.

Public Citizen and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service have followed LES' efforts to build a uranium enrichment plant for many years. "We don't think the case has been made that this plant is necessary," Hauter said.

Mariotte said there is no place in the country to dispose of uranium hexafluoride. To deplete it, Mariotte said the hydrogen fluoride can be stripped out of UF6, but you have to have the facility to do it.

The U.S. Department of Energy plans to build two facilities to deplete uranium in Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky.

Hauter said there are many site issues with the proposed plant:

Public Citizen is concerned that the NRC has not adequately assessed the impact of the facility on local ground and surface water.

The plant won't use too much water, but it is "one more strain" on the arid environment.

The organization is concerned about LES' deconversion plans; the company's plans to dispose of spent uranium.

Public Citizen is also concerned about plant security issues, especially given the current world climate, Hauter said. In line with that, there is also concern about the natural gas lines that run fairly close to the plant and the chance for explosion and fire. Cohen said NRIS and Public Citizen are "admittedly out to kill the project."

The New Mexico Attorney General's Office has the following concerns:

"Ultimately, if the plant is not economically viable, the 90 percent majority owners, which are foreign entities, may simply abandon their investment," the filing said. In that case, problems of cleanup and plant dismantling might fall on New Mexico.

Cohen said this is not going to happen. He said LES has not had a chance to talk to the Attorney General's Office to see what their thinking is on this issue.

If UF6, known as tails, is left on the plant site for decades, it could pose environmental risk to the state, the filing said.

In its current application, LES identified two "plausible" approaches for waste disposal: other private investors would construct a "deconversion" plant to change the depleted UF6 into U308, (where the hydrogen fluoride is stripped out) and the U308 would be buried in an exhausted uranium mine.

Under the second plan, LES would require the Department of Energy to dispose of the waste at a price determined by DOE.

DOE already has 704,000 metric tons of its own to dispose of, the filing said. "The actual obstacles to disposal are suggested by the Jan. 15, 2004, letter to NRC from Gov. Bob Taft of Ohio, who stated that waste from a New Mexico plant would not be allowed in Ohio," the filing said.

How LES will pay for disposal is unclear also, the filing said.

LES's estimates for disposing of the "tails" are "suspect" and will wind up being more costly than the company thinks.
Cohen said LES will set aside money for decommissioning as set by the NRC.
Cohen said LES believes the issues raised by the New Mexico Attorney General's Office and in a petition from the New Mexico Environment Department, can be resolved. "And we look forward to working with them," he said.

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