Government won't build nuclear-waste incinerator near Yellowstone

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Once again Energy Secretary Richardson bows to political pressure,
without considering the impact on DOE's waste disposal program and the
science which shows no possible harm to the Yellowstone National Park
region.  It is interesting to note that there is a "nuclear waste
incinerator" at the K-25 site, just a few miles upwind from the City of
Oak Ridge and maybe 30 miles from the Knoxville metropolitan area with a
population of about 600,000.  I suppose they'll just ship INEEL's waste
to Oak Ridge's TSCA Incinerator, where emissions can't possibly drift
over those celebrities' ranches in Jackson Hole.

My opinion only,
Susan Gawarecki

Government won't build nuclear-waste incinerator near Yellowstone 

 Copyright © 2000 Nando Media
 Copyright © 2000 Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (March 28, 2000 8:29 a.m. EST
http://www.nandotimes.com) - The U.S. government has dropped
plans to build a nuclear-waste incinerator 100 miles upwind from
the scenic Tetons and Yellowstone National Park, the country's
oldest and largest national park. 

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson on Monday confirmed a
settlement with environmental groups that had sued over the
plan. Critics feared that toxic particles would have drifted into
Wyoming and laced the land and water with PCBs and radiation. 

At the core of the controversy is 130,000 cubic yards of waste
at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory
near Idaho Falls. 

Half of the waste is supposed to go to an underground facility
outside Carlsbad, N.M., the nation's only long-term storage site
for radioactive waste. 

The Energy Department had contracted with British Nuclear Fuels
Ltd. to build a facility at the site to compact up to 90 percent of
the storage-bound waste and an incinerator to burn the rest.
Burning was to be used for waste too laden with PCBs for
storage or containing materials too dangerous to ship. 

The anti-incinerator movement was born last summer in the
scenic Jackson Hole region of northwest Wyoming, where
celebrities including Harrison Ford have built second homes. 

Opponents - who had the services of Jackson attorney Gerry
Spence - said the government planned to allow the burning of
waste that contains about 1 metric ton of plutonium. 

Energy officials hope to begin construction of the treatment
plant - without an incinerator - as early as May. They estimated
the cost of the facility at $500 million, less than half the
estimate with the incinerator. 

Richardson said he also agreed to commission a panel to study
technological alternatives to burning nuclear waste nationwide. 
-- 
==================================================
Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 S Illinois Ave, Ste 208, Oak Ridge, TN 37830
Phone (865) 483-1333; Fax (865) 482-6572; E-mail loc@icx.net 
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