Editorial: Innovation sought on cleanup

Tuesday, June 29, 1999 | 9:37 a.m.

The Cold War is over, but a remnant from that age -- contamination of nuclear weapons sites across the United States -- still bedevils the nation. Last week a National Academy of Sciences' panel released a report that noted that while the U.S. Department of Energy has spent billions of dollars to clean up ground water and soil at the nation's nuclear weapons facilities, it still hasn't been enough to finish the job.

"That means DOE's cleanup efforts won't meet federal and state regulatory standards unless the agency shifts its focus to both developing and implementing new methods," Herb Ward, chairman of the National Academy of Sciences' panel, said. The report, which was sponsored by the DOE, said some of the current methods to treat contaminated soil and restore polluted water have significant drawbacks: excavation can destroy the existing ecosystems and pumping sometimes is not effective in flushing out persistent contaminants.

The Subsurface Contaminants Focus Area is the division within the DOE that is responsible for developing innovative cleanup technologies. The National Academy of Sciences found that the division has developed some breakthroughs, but it needs to expand the use of these new methods. One of the reasons for the inability to implement new technologies, the panel notes, is fear. Some DOE site managers prefer to use an existing technology instead of potentially being stuck with the liability for cleanup costs if a new method doesn't work.

On top of all of this the very division within the DOE whose mission it is to generate new technologies has seen its budget sliced over the years. In 1994 the Subsurface Contaminant Focus Area's budget was $82.1 million, but by 1998 it had been lowered to just $14.7 million. This year the budget has been increased to $25 million, but the National Academy of Sciences panel believes this is still insufficient.

In Nevada there are three nuclear weapons sites in need of cleanup. The most well-known is the Nevada Test Site, located 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where nuclear weapons were tested both above and below ground from 1951 to 1992. As the Sun's Mary Manning reported Friday, surface soils contaminated with plutonium are a top priority for the DOE's sites in Nevada, but the department also is concerned about ground water contaminated with radiation at the Nevada Test Site.

DOE's management should adopt some of the National Academy of Sciences' recommendations, including an emphasis on exploring new technologies. In addition, Congress should restore the funding it has cut to the DOE division responsible for fostering innovative approaches to cleaning up nuclear weapons sites. Nuclear contamination of land and ground water must be addressed seriously -- this is an issue that won't go away no matter how much policymakers would like to ignore it.