nuclear-news

No to Oak Ridge nuclear wastes – says Nevada Governor

Nevada Gov. Tells Feds To Bury ‘Dirty Bomb’ Nuclear Waste Elsewhere June 21, 2013 CBS, LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada’s governor is telling the federal government the state doesn’t want highly radioactive waste of the type that could be used to build a “dirty bomb” buried in a shallow pit at the former national nuclear proving ground north of Las Vegas.

The federal Energy Department is reviewing Gov. Brian Sandoval’s letter opposing plans to ship about 400 canisters of waste from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to the Nevada National Security Site, agency spokeswoman Aoife McCarthy said Friday.

Sandoval, a Republican former federal judge and state attorney general, accused the Energy Department of trying to set a dangerous precedent by exploiting a regulatory loophole to classify the waste as a low-level hazard so that it can be buried at the former test site about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The governor said the material should be handled as high-level radioactive waste.

“This dangerous waste should be managed in the same manner as remote-handled transuranic waste,” Sandoval said, noting that the Energy Department provides hands-free handling and permanent deep-geologic storage of similar material at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.

The governor also accused the Energy Department of failing to adequately address concerns of affected local governments and Indian tribes.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported (http://bit.ly/1982fbx) that Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, are backing Sandoval…….

Even if the canisters meet a “legalistic definition” of low-level waste, Sandoval said in his letter, they aren’t suitable for shallow land burial at the Nevada National Security Site.

The governor noted that the canisters contain a high concentration of isotope uranium 235 and uranium 233 that would be a danger to workers and a potential source of dirty bomb material……. http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2013/06/21/nevada-gov-tells-feds-to-bury-dirty-bomb-nuclear-waste-elsewhere/

June 24, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA