Senate Helps DOE Hide High-Level Nuke Waste: Just Reclassify It!!

[Guest guest]

I've got an idea, why don't we store it directly under their living

and working space? Think that might bring about some changes, eh?

Other comments?

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

Senate Helps DOE Abandon High-level Nuclear Waste: Don't want

to clean it up? Just reclassify it!

 

It isn't easy being simply green. When the government and industry

doesn't want to clean up toxic chemicals, it just reclassifies them.

This isn't new. It's been happening for many decades, possibly for

centuries. What begins as toxic waste or some chemical waste by-

product is often reclassified as a food, food additives or something

else to be more easily disposed. The real boon to industry however

has been to sell waste to people as an addictive food or additive.

~ek

 

Senate Helps DOE Abandon High-level Nuclear Waste

 

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Dateline: June 5, 2004

 

The U.S. Senate may have cleared the way for the Department of

Energy (DOE) to virtually abandon, rather than clean up, millions of

gallons of highly radioactive waste in leaking storage tanks by

simply " reclassifying " it.

 

By a vote of 48-48, the Senate last week rejected an amendment to

remove language from the Defense Authorization funding bill that

changes the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), allowing DOE to

reclassify high-level radioactive waste as " Waste Incidental to

Reprocessing " in South Carolina. The language in the bill, which was

written by DOE and added in committee by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC),

will allow DOE to abandon potentially millions of gallons of highly

radioactive waste in leaking tanks in South Carolina, and, according

to environmentalists, set an alarming precedent for similar

nuclear waste cleanup sites in Idaho and Washington.

 

Background:

 

DOE is responsible for cleaning up 253 underground tanks containing

approximately 100 million gallons of high-level nuclear waste in

Washington, Idaho, South Carolina and New York. In July 2003, a

federal district court ordered DOE to remove the highly toxic

radioactive waste from the storage tanks, many of which have already

begun leaking, to protect human health. The ruling prohibited DOE

from arbitrarily " reclassifying " the waste as " Waste Incidental to

Reprocessing " and abandoning the waste in tanks beneath a layer of

grout as the agency had planned. DOE has appealed the district

court decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in

San Francisco. Six states (South Carolina, Washington, Idaho, New

York, Oregon and New Mexico) have written in support of upholding

the district court's ruling.

 

In its earlier deliberations on the Defense Authorization funding

bill, the House of Representatives voted to remove the language

allowing DOE to take the " reclassification " tact.

 

Reaction:

 

The following is a statement from a press release by Karen Wayland,

legislative director of the Natural Resources Defense Council in

reaction to the Senate's action:

 

" Despite strong bi-partisan support for Senator Cantwell's amendment

to strike a dangerous provision from the defense authorization bill,

the effort to prevent the Bush administration from weakening nuclear

waste protections fell in a tie vote.

 

" Senator Graham has done the dirty work for the Department of Energy,

rewriting nuclear cleanup laws behind closed doors despite the risks

to South Carolina and other states.

 

" Thanks to Senator Graham, the Savannah River (South Carolina) Site

could become the most radioactive place on the planet.

 

" We're shocked that Senator Graham and some of his colleagues would

sell their states down the river so the Department of Energy can

avoid cleaning up millions of gallons of highly radioactive waste in

corroding tanks next to drinking water supplies.

 

" This legislative fix is a cruel trick that allows the Bush

administration to leave a legacy of radioactive pollution that could

endanger drinking water for millions of Americans.

 

" Unlike the Senate, members of the House prevented the Department of

Energy's dirty and dangerous deal from polluting the defense bill.

The fight to protect the public from radioactive waste now moves to

conference committee. "