Some ‘high-level’ nuke waste may not deserve rating

Wednesday, March 2, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE

WASHINGTON - Some high-level nuclear waste at Energy Department sites, likely a small amount, may not be worthy of "high-level" classification at all -- and should not be shipped to Yucca Mountain, scientists say.

At issue in a recent study was waste left over from Cold War bomb-making, now the subject of massive clean-up efforts. Waste deemed as "high-level" likely would be bound for the planned national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

But some percentage of that waste might better be left in place rather than risking human health and inviting environmental dangers, according to reports released Tuesday from two panels of National Academies of Science.

The panels urged the Energy Department to revamp its massive $140 billion cleanup plans for defense nuclear waste with the goal of transporting less of it to Yucca and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, or WIPP, where lower-level wastes are buried.

This would allow cleanup activities to be completed sooner and cost less, the panels said. The current cleanup schedule, involving dozens of sites in a number of states, envisions most waste treatment and disposal to be finished in 20 years.

The Energy Department should determine which types of waste and how much may not require disposal at Yucca, panel member John Applegate said.

"Potentially there is a consequence for Yucca Mountain, certainly," Applegate said. "But how much (waste) is hard to determine."

The panels urged the Energy Department to establish a "risk-informed" process to determine what waste should be buried in shallow storage or left in place rather than hauled to Yucca or WIPP.

"Given the controversy surrounding this issue and the reality that not all of the waste will or can be recovered and disposed of off-site, the country needs a structured, well thought-out way to determine which wastes can stay," said David Daniel, panel chairman and Engineering College dean at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

The scientists also called for greater involvement outside of the Energy Department in determining what wastes should be left in place and what should be transported to Yucca.

The report said the department's credibility on decisions involving waste disposal is hampered because the department both proposes and approves waste disposition plans.

"DOE should not attempt to adopt these changes unilaterally," said the panel.