| Waste upsets board of SRS Meeting brings no new disposal plan AIKEN - Orphaned plutonium and a roiling dispute about plans to leave several tons of grout-laced high-level nuclear waste in steel storage tanks headlined the start Monday of a two-day meeting of the Savannah River Site's Citizens Advisory Board. Board members were hopeful that U.S. Department of Energy officials would use the forum to unveil new plans for disposing of 13 metric tons of plutonium, including 5 metric tons already at SRS. But no new plan was presented Monday, and board members repeated their opposition to SRS becoming a storage bin for scrap and trash-laced plutonium from three other federal nuclear reservations, noting that the storage casings for this material have a 50-year life span. "Savannah River is being used as a stopgap measure," said Perry Holcomb, of North Augusta. "We just don't want SRS to turn into a holding facility for an untold number of years." Under DOE's original plan, plutonium from three other federal nuclear reservations was to be shipped to the site for processing and eventual burial in special glass casings at the agency's Yucca Mountain waste facility in Nevada. But that plan has been scrapped because of its high price tag, forcing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to admit in a June 15 letter to Congress that the department doesn't have a new disposal plan. Until a new plan is in place, South Carolina officials, including Gov. Mark Sanford and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, have said they don't want to see more plutonium shipped into the state from other federal nuclear reservations. SRS is scheduled to accept both weapons-grade plutonium considered clean enough for conversion into fuel for nuclear power plants and dirtier material that was supposed to be prepared for burial at Yucca Mountain. "Sen. Graham and the governor have made it clear - 'We don't want you sending more stuff here until you have a plan for getting rid of this,'" said Mal McKibben, the executive director of Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness, an Aiken-based pro-nuclear organization. Environmentalists say the DOE and Mr. Graham are trying to sidestep federal law and reclassify 37 million gallons of waste in SRS storage tanks so residual amounts - less than 1 percent - can be grouted and left in place, saving cleanup time and about $16 billion. A federal judge in Idaho ruled last year that the DOE's attempts to reclassify the waste were illegal, but legislation sponsored by Mr. Graham seeks to let the agency move forward at SRS. "This current effort would suspend the law of the land and make DOE the ultimate arbiter of how that waste will be disposed," said Glenn Carroll, of Georgians Against Nuclear Energy, who attended the meetings. "You've got to ask yourself: Do you feel lucky? Do you feel DOE will consistently have the best interest of South Carolina at heart for the thousands of years this material will be with us?" But Mr. Holcomb points out that the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control will have to sign off on the closing of any grout-treated storage tank. Although the advisory board has not supported Mr. Graham's amendment, it wants to see quick resolution of the problem - by either fast court action or new regulations. If the Idaho case drags on, the 2019 deadline for closing tanks at SRS might not be met. "That will continue the risk of exposure to people and cost more money for the taxpayer," Mr. Holcomb said.
Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1395, ext. 111, or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com.
ATOMIC WASTE At the heart of the debate about high-level nuclear waste at Savannah River Site are two problems: how to dispose of five metric tons of plutonium, part of 13 metric tons nationwide without a disposal plan, and whether the U.S. Department of Energy will be allowed to leave behind a less than 1 percent residue of 37 million gallons of high-level nuclear waste in grout at the bottom of storage tanks. Source: U.S. Department of Energy; Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness
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