Editorial: Maintain halt of waste shipments

Thursday, March 26, 1998 | 10:56 a.m.

GOV. Bob Miller is right on target in urging the U.S. Energy Department to continue its moratorium on shipments of low-level radioactive waste to the Nevada Test Site.

Miller doesn't believe the Energy Department thoroughly reviewed a December 1997 incident near Kingman, Ariz., in which a truck carrying low-level radioactive waste headed to the Test Site had water leak from one of the containers. The shipment originated at the Energy Department's nuclear weapons facility in Fernald, Ohio.

"This report is inadequate," Miller said. "Our review of it finds many unanswered questions which are critical to the safety of the Nevada public and visitors, and to the safety of residents in the dozens of communities through which this hazardous cargo passes, en route from Ohio."

The review by the Miller administration identified a number of inadequacies in the report, including:

(bullet) The Energy Department has no formal plan to send out a radiological hazardous response team to an accident site, and the completed report doesn't contain any direction to do so.

(bullet) There are no steps taken by the Energy Department to address the mismanagement that created the potential for the problem in the program in the first place.

These aren't infrequent shipments that happen just once a month; more than 400 low-level radioactive waste shipments from Fernald were sent to the Nevada Test Site in 1997. Since 1994, more than 23,000 low-level radioactive shipments have been sent to the Test Site from the Fernald weapons facility, according to Miller.

The Energy Department doesn't seem to get the message about the public's mistrust of its handling of nuclear waste, whether it's low-level or high-level. The Energy Department should remember that it is not simply loading a produce truck full of vegetables and fruits to be shipped to Nevada; it's shipping radioactive waste.

Until the Energy Department adequately answers the state's concerns, the moratorium should continue. In the past, there has been no genuine dialogue between the Energy Department and the states that either receive the waste or have shipments pass through their communities. But the Energy Department must have a genuine dialogue with the states about the true dangers of transporting radioactive waste. Otherwise, it will never earn the public's trust.