Classification request could be part of defense bill

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004 | 9:35 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department's request that Congress grant it authority to classify radioactive waste as high-level or low-level material could be included in the Defense Authorization bill, set to be introduced later this year.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., head of the Senate Strategic Forces subcommittee, said at a hearing Wednesday that resolving the waste classification issue would be one of his highest priorities when the committee prepares the bill.

"I'm concerned about the additional cost," Allard said after the hearing. "It's disrupting the efficiency of the program."

A July 2003 federal court ruling said the department did not have the power to classify radioactive waste in storage tanks at three former nuclear weapons construction site as high- or low-level. The department claims that limitation will lead to higher cleanup costs and more waste than it intended to go to the planned nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"Rather than accelerating cleanup, we face stopping most of the work," Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Jessie Roberson told the panel Tuesday.

Nevada does not have a cleanup site, but any change in the waste classification rules would affect Yucca Mountain because Energy Department officials intend to store high-level nuclear waste at Yucca. The Energy Department intends to clean up all of its sites by 2032, Roberson said. Most of the waste from the cleanup sites is destined for Yucca after treatment, officials have said.

The department wants to withhold $350 million in cleanup funds until the problem can be solved.

"It does not make sense for us to proceed to prepare tank waste for deep geologic disposal," Roberson said. If the proposed change does not go through, Roberson said, "We will likely not be in a mission to proceed with the work the $350 million will provide."

Allard said he would continue to talk to the department about the situation and that no other senators have discussed the matter with him. He has also been in contact with the affected cleanup sites in Washington, Idaho and South Carolina.

Besides going to Congress, the department has a case pending in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the decision.

"I don't hold a lot of hope on the 9th Circuit," Allard said, adding again that putting a clarification in the Defense Authorization bill might be the way to go.

Roberson said the matter does not affect the construction of a plant at the Hanford site in Washington that is to turn liquid waste into glass logs destined for Yucca.

She said opening Yucca in 2010 is still critical to the department's completing it cleanup goals.

"If you can't begin, you can't finish," Roberson said.