Mixed waste designation questioned

Thursday, Oct. 10, 2002 | 9:47 a.m.

The Nevada Environmental Protection Division is still reviewing how the National Nuclear Security Administration would identify chemicals in shipments of low-level radioactive waste destined for the Nevada Test Site.

Until the issue is resolved, the federal agency in charge of cleaning up old nuclear weapons sites nationwide cannot ship about 700,000 cubic feet of so-called mixed waste to the Test Site.

The Community Advisory Board, a panel of volunteers overseeing federal activities on the Test Site, heard an update of the stalemate Wednesday night.

The state issued a temporary permit allowing the mixed waste to be buried at the Test Site from 1985 until 1990, Michael Giblin, the project's manager, told the panel.

In 1990 the state told DOE that only mixed wastes generated within Nevada could be buried.

The state has two major concerns with DOE's latest plan, Paul Liebendorfer of the Environmental Protection Division said.

First is a question of how the DOE will analyze the contents of shipments, usually packed in 55-gallon drums or metal containers. Second is the issue of guaranteeing hazardous chemicals stay in the pit and don't reach the ground water, Liebendorfer said.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions," Liebendorfer said. "We still don't think they have responded to our concerns."

Most of the mixed wastes would come from Rocky Flats, a former plutonium processing complex near Denver, Colo., Oak Ridge, Tenn., Piketon, Ohio, Paducah, Ky., and Mound, Ohio.