Waste shipment leaks are cited as potential
WIPP danger.
LANL waste treatment expenses may be
wasting millions in taxpayer's money.
Pentagon considered using nuclear weapons
against Saddam Hussein.
Nuclear waste disposal protested in other
countries.
Town meetings and final WIPP hearings set
for early January.
* The leaks detected this week in cross-
country truck shipments of low-level radioactive waste should be
a warning, anti-nuclear critics say, of futurepossible leaks in
even more dangerous waste shipments destined to travel through
New Mexico. They are worried, specifically, about plutonium-
contaminated wastes slated to be buried at the Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant, or WIPP, near Carlsbad, New Mexico.
"And wait till we get the high level wastes (from nuclear-power
plants) coming through here" to Nevada, said Don Hancock, a
leading WIPP critic at the Southwest Research and Information
Center, in Albuquerque. Although the government disagrees, he
said, "WIPP needs escorts along with those shipments so that if
there is a leak or an accident somebody other than the (waste
truck) driver is there to deal with it."
The leak incidents "don't inspire public confidence that
they are going to do theseWIPP shipments safely, " agreed Lee
Lysne, Executive Director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear
Safety. The Department of Energy, said Lysne, "has forfeited the
right to say 'trust us.' The leaks are another example of
this."
The DOE announced last Wednesday that one leak of low-level
waste was found on a truck 20 miles east of Kingman, Arizona.
Four other leaks were on trucks that arrived Monday and Tuesday
at the Nevada test site north of Las Vegas, Nevada. The DOE
claimed that the leaks were contained within the truck, and were
under investigation. Use of the leaky containers has
subsequently been halted.
The Director of the DOE's Carlsbad office said that there
are major differences between the low-level waste disposal
program and requirements for the WIPP.
"Our container is more robust, very conservative and it's
been extensively tested." he said. It is specially designed and
engineered to contain plutonium contamination, which can cause
cancer. WIPP wastes will contain no liquid, drivers will be
extensively trained in strict procedures, and shipments
rigorously inspected.
" Our shipments are an insignificant added risk to the public, "
he said. But Lysne said accidents and misinformation have taught
critics not to trust the DOE.
"Robust?. ..It sounds like a fine wine. But they're dealing
with radioactive waste and they repeatedly demonstrate a lack of
accountability," she said. She urged citizens to voice their
concerns at the final round of U. S. Environmental Protection
Agency hearings on WIPP in early January.
* The cost of privatization of the Los
Alamos National Laboratory 's radioactive liquid waste treatment
facility has not been sufficiently analyzed, a new report by the
Department of Energy maintains. The failure to fully analyze
operating costs may be costing $2 million more per year than
necessary, the Inspector General's office of the DOE said, and
may come close to $11 million over the next five years.
According to the report, nuclear power companies spend an
average of 10 cents per gallon to treat their radioactive nuclear
waste, while the lab is spending $1. 70 per gallon. A Lab
spokesman said Monday that the Lab doesn't agree with the
numbers, but accepts the need for a privatization study.
According to the DOE report, earlier studies were begun by the
lab, but never completed. Study groups at LANL conceded that
privatizing some waste management activities could have benefits
in many areas, and identified liquid waste management as a high
priority for privatization. Selecting the most cost-effective
operation method could not only save the government millions of
dollars in operating costs, but also eliminate the need for a new
plant to replace the current 34-year-old facility, a replacement
estimated at $13 million. The lab says it has hired an outside
firm to make the report, which should be completed in
spring.
* The use of low-yield tactical nuclear
weapons against biological weapons in Saddam Hussein's Iraq was
an option considered by Pentagon planners, an in-depth analysis
by NBC revealed. The bomb, known as the B61-11was designed and
produced at Los Alamos and can penetrate underground bunkers and
incinerate possible germ warfare agents with the heat generated
by its explosion. NBC News said that the strike was considered
because the U.S. does not have conventional weapons effective
against biological targets. It was fear of a political backlash
that caused the nuclear option to be abandoned, officials told
NBC's Pentagon correspondent.
* And in other news around the world, anti-
nuclear activists in Germany chained themselves to a ship in
Bremerhaven harbor on Monday. The ship was carrying plutonium to
a nuclear reprocessing center in Scotland, said Greenpeace, the
environmental organization.
In Amsterdam, Greenpeace called on France to salvage
radioactive material that sank last month in the Atlantic.
In Mexico City, a box of highly radioactive material is
believed to have fallen off a truck more than a week ago.
Mexican authorities are offering a $2,500 reward to anyone who
turns it in.
* WIPP Town meetings will be held on
January 3, from 3:00-5:00 p.m., and January 5 from 6:00-9:00 p.m.
at the Santa Fe Public Library. The final Environmental
Protection Agency public WIPP hearings will take place in
Carlsbad, Albuquerque and Santa Fe, from January 5 through
January 9. In Santa Fe the hearings will be held at the Harold
Runnels Auditorium, 1190 St. Francis Drive, at 3:00-9:00 p.m.,
January 8, and 9:00--5:00 p.m., January 9. CCNS would like to
encourage the public to attend. Those who wish to speak should
call the EPA's toll-free number at (800) 331-WIPP by noon, Dec.
30. Speakers are allowed 5 minutes each, and if there are slots
available, those wishing to speak can also register at the
door.
For more information, Call CCNS.
* There will be no new hotline during the week between
Christmas and the New Year. The next hotline will be issued on
January 8, 1998.
