State Says No to 2nd Nuclear Dump: Feds Seeking Disposal Site
Jul 31 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - John Fleck Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
The Department of Energy's love affair with disposing radioactive
trash at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant doesn't mean it wants to send
nuclear power plant fuel there as well.
But if WIPP had a twin sister?
>
> In a statement last week, the federal agency said it had no
> interest in sending highly radioactive power plant fuel to WIPP. But
> the agency did not rule out the possibility of sending the spent fuel
> to a new site in the same area.
>
> Officials with Gov. Bill Richardson's administration countered
> Wednesday with an emphatic "no" to that idea.
>
> The spat is a local manifestation of a national debate, as
> officials begin a search for an alternative to Yucca Mountain in
> Nevada, which was to be the disposal site for highly radioactive fuel
> rods from U.S.
> nuclear
> power plants.
>
> Jim Conca, head of the Department of Energy-funded Carlsbad
> Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, thinks that while WIPP
> itself is suitable for the highly radioactive power plant waste, it
> makes sense to consider a site nearby.
>
> There is enough land in the immediate vicinity already under
> federal ownership to build a second facility to replace Yucca
> Mountain, Conca said in a telephone interview Thursday.
>
> With the infrastructure already in place and a trained work force
> available in the Carlsbad area, the site would make an ideal
> alternative, Conca said.
>
> Newly appointed Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced in March
> that the Obama administration was abandoning the project and launching
> a search for a new site. To begin that process, administration
> officials are convening a panel to consider alternatives.
>
> The New Mexico version of the debate centers on the Waste
> Isolation Pilot Plant, a 2,150-foot deep salt mine opened in 1999 for
> the disposal of plutonium-contaminated radioactive waste from decades
> of nuclear weapons work.
>
> As the only deep underground radioactive waste disposal site,
> WIPP is often described as "the only drain in the bathtub" when it
> comes to the nation's nuclear waste. State officials, afraid WIPP's
> mission would be expanded to take other, more highly radioactive waste
> once it was open, insisted on tough restrictions in federal law to
> prevent that.
>
> In a statement issued last week, the Department of Energy said it
> would abide by those restrictions. But it did not rule out finding
> other deep underground salt beds for the waste once destined for Yucca
> Mountain.
> And WIPP site advocates say the same salt beds used for WIPP would
> likely be a leading candidate.
>
> New Mexico Deputy Environment Secretary Jon Goldstein issued a
> statement saying any change in the mission of WIPP itself would be
> unacceptable to the state.
>
> Asked whether the state would also object to a new facility in
> the same area to handle more highly radioactive waste, Goldstein
> responded, "Our opposition applies across New Mexico."
The Department of Energy's love affair with disposing radioactive
trash at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant doesn't mean it wants to send
nuclear power plant fuel there as well.
But if WIPP had a twin sister?
>
> In a statement last week, the federal agency said it had no
> interest in sending highly radioactive power plant fuel to WIPP. But
> the agency did not rule out the possibility of sending the spent fuel
> to a new site in the same area.
>
> Officials with Gov. Bill Richardson's administration countered
> Wednesday with an emphatic "no" to that idea.
>
> The spat is a local manifestation of a national debate, as
> officials begin a search for an alternative to Yucca Mountain in
> Nevada, which was to be the disposal site for highly radioactive fuel
> rods from U.S.
> nuclear
> power plants.
>
> Jim Conca, head of the Department of Energy-funded Carlsbad
> Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, thinks that while WIPP
> itself is suitable for the highly radioactive power plant waste, it
> makes sense to consider a site nearby.
>
> There is enough land in the immediate vicinity already under
> federal ownership to build a second facility to replace Yucca
> Mountain, Conca said in a telephone interview Thursday.
>
> With the infrastructure already in place and a trained work force
> available in the Carlsbad area, the site would make an ideal
> alternative, Conca said.
>
> Newly appointed Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced in March
> that the Obama administration was abandoning the project and launching
> a search for a new site. To begin that process, administration
> officials are convening a panel to consider alternatives.
>
> The New Mexico version of the debate centers on the Waste
> Isolation Pilot Plant, a 2,150-foot deep salt mine opened in 1999 for
> the disposal of plutonium-contaminated radioactive waste from decades
> of nuclear weapons work.
>
> As the only deep underground radioactive waste disposal site,
> WIPP is often described as "the only drain in the bathtub" when it
> comes to the nation's nuclear waste. State officials, afraid WIPP's
> mission would be expanded to take other, more highly radioactive waste
> once it was open, insisted on tough restrictions in federal law to
> prevent that.
>
> In a statement issued last week, the Department of Energy said it
> would abide by those restrictions. But it did not rule out finding
> other deep underground salt beds for the waste once destined for Yucca
> Mountain.
> And WIPP site advocates say the same salt beds used for WIPP would
> likely be a leading candidate.
>
> New Mexico Deputy Environment Secretary Jon Goldstein issued a
> statement saying any change in the mission of WIPP itself would be
> unacceptable to the state.
>
> Asked whether the state would also object to a new facility in
> the same area to handle more highly radioactive waste, Goldstein
> responded, "Our opposition applies across New Mexico."