South Carolina should welcome approval of a nuclear waste cleanup plan by a House-Senate conference committee last week. The plan, advanced by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., provides adequate safeguards and oversight for the project, and relies on the practical experience already gained on two similar cleanup projects at SRS.
Highly radioactive waste from two tanks at SRS already have been removed and stabilized for eventual storage in the interior of Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Concrete and grout were poured into the tanks, thereby stabilizing the waste residue that couldn't be safely removed and diluting it so that it no longer qualifies as high-level waste.
The remaining 49 tanks, containing more than 35 million gallons of waste, will undergo the same process under the scrutiny of state environmental officials. Meanwhile, the National Academy of Sciences will review the plan in preparation for the cleanup to determine if it meets requisite safety standards. The process already has been reviewed and found to be safe by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
Critics have opposed the plan because it does not take care of 100 percent of the radioactive waste in the storage tanks. It does have the benefit, however, of actually getting virtually all of the waste removed, treated for permanent storage and eventually taken off site. As Sen. Graham observed, "Tank cleanup efforts at the site have been at a virtual standstill."
He estimates that the cleanup plan will put the waste removal more than two decades ahead of schedule.
"It's long past time we get the cleanup efforts moving forward again to protect our environment," Sen. Graham said. "Every day we delay just increases the risk to the local community and the Savannah River that these tanks, some of them 50 years old, will leak and create even greater problems down the road."
The plan has been endorsed by Gov. Mark Sanford, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, Attorney General Henry McMaster, the Aiken County legislative delegation and other local officials. Its approval by conference committee, as part of the Defense Appropriations bill, virtually ensures congressional passage.
The plan has been opposed by officials from Washington state and Idaho and some environmental organizations, who object to what they view as a weakening of cleanup standards and the federal responsibility for managing radioactive waste. Hanford, in Washington state, has an even larger volume of high-level waste in storage than SRS.
South Carolina has opted for a practical and expedient solution over the possibility of a perfect cleanup plan perhaps decades hence. The safeguards and oversight required are sufficient to the long-overdue task. Eventually, the project may point the way for the management of other waste sites that currently are on hold.
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