| SRS cleanup revived U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's compromise plan to get the Savannah River Site's accelerated cleanup project back on schedule has taken a giant step forward in Congress. A House-Senate conference committee gave the Graham plan a green light in the $445.6 billion defense authorization bill. SRS' cleanup project was dealt a severe blow in the summer of 2003 when a federal judge ruled that the Department of Energy's plan to reclassify residual sludge in tanks at SRS and other nuclear weapons sites from high-level radioactive nuclear waste to low-level waste violated the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. That act requires nuclear facilities to route all their high-level N-waste to the permanent storage facility approved, but not yet built, at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Highly radioactive waste is extremely expensive and difficult to remove, so reclassifying it and treating it on site would save $16 billion in cleanup costs and shorten SRS cleanup time by 23 years, according to DOE. The federal judge was right to turn down DOE's reclassification request - the agency should not be allowed to reclassify nuclear waste to suit its convenience. However, the ruling did wreak havoc with SRS' accelerated cleanup. That's when Graham came forth with his compromise, which applies only to SRS. The senator's plan calls for the energy agency to pump out 99 percent of the 37 million gallons of high level N-waste in 49 storage tanks at SRS and send it to Yucca Mountain. However, 1 percent or less of the residual waste still clinging to the sides and bottoms of the tanks - and which is the most difficult and expensive to remove - would have to be diluted with grout, thus turning it into "low-level" N-waste as defined by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. The plan is not without its critics - including the Palmetto State's other U.S. senator, "Fritz" Hollings, who subscribes to the concerns of some environmental groups that lobbied against the Graham amendment on grounds the tanks would still not be secure enough to prevent nearby drinking water supplies from eventually being contaminated. However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board, neither of which has ever been accused of being soft on safety, have declared the compromise safe. Finally, as Graham points out, "South Carolina has the ultimate say on whether a tank has been cleaned up and can be closed up. That's a big, big win for the state." It is also why the Graham compromise had the strong support of other Palmetto State leaders, including Gov. Mark Sanford, and U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-S.C., whose congressional district covers SRS. Those who still take a dim view of the Graham plan need to realize that the energy agency was planning to withhold cleanup funds if it couldn't move ahead on its accelerated cleanup project. That means virtually nothing would be done - at least not for awhile - on the environmental cleanup. How safe is that? Graham's amendment ensures the cleanup will move forward - at a savings of $16 billion, and 23 years ahead of schedule. We think that's a pretty good deal.
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