Weaker nuke cleanup standards to be proposed

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004 | 11:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department plans to recommend weaker cleanup standards in the event of a nuclear "dirty bomb," a coalition of environmental groups said today.

The department is preparing to unveil new recommendations that would "dramatically weaken requirements for cleaning up radioactive contamination from a terrorist radiological or nuclear explosive," the groups said.

More than 50 activist groups signed a letter sent to the department, urging the agency not to move to weaken clean-up standards. The groups include the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Public Citizen and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

At issue is a department "guidance" aimed at federal and state agencies that would be responsible for cleanups. The document also is expected to recommend an increase in the level of radiation considered safe for emergency response workers.

The guidance document is the result of long deliberation by agencies including Homeland Security, the Energy Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The guidance proposes standards that are up to 2,500 times less protective than the risk levels considered by the EPA as acceptable for cleanup at radioactive sites, the groups said. The guidance would permit ongoing contamination levels after cleanup equal to tens of thousands of chest X-rays over 30 years, increasing latent cancer rates, the groups said.

"By permitting such high radiation levels to remain without cleanup, Homeland Security would actually be increasing the casualty count," said Diane D'Arrigo, radioactive waste project director at Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Don Jacks today said he could not respond to those charges. The guidelines were based on 1980s guidelines for nuclear power plant accident cleanups, he said.

The guidelines were set for a possible mid-December release, but Jacks didn't know if that schedule would be kept. After internal approvals, the guidelines would be published in the federal register and subject to public comment.

In a separate letter, the groups urged the EPA not to adopt new cleanup standards based on the new guidance that are significantly weaker than EPA's current standards.

Response agencies would not be bound by the guidance document, which would not be a law or regulation. But "it will have great weight," especially because it will set a precedent for easing radiation standards at other sites -- including Yucca Mountain, said Daniel Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a leader of the activist groups.

"It's clearly an effort by nuclear agencies to relax clean-up requirements more broadly," Hirsch said. "This is the first salvo in that effort."

Radiation safety standards are a critical issue facing the Energy Department's proposed Yucca project. The project suffered a setback this year when a federal court threw out an EPA radiation standard for being weaker than standards recommended by the National Academy of Sciences.

Nevada officials have long argued that the federal plan to ship high-level nuclear waste to Nevada for storage in the proposed waste repository could invite a terrorist attack.