Nuclear Waste Sites Need Long-Term Planning

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Nuclear Waste Sites Need Long-Term Planning
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The legacy of the Cold War will live 
on and on--for roughly tens of thousands of years--in the form of 
radioactive waste from the manufacturing of nuclear bombs. 
Now, the Department of Energy (DOE) is planning a transition from 
active waste site management to ``long-term stewardship'' of the 144 
waste sites in the United States. Many are severely contaminated with 
highly dangerous radioactive materials like plutonium. 
In a report released this week by the National Academy of Sciences 
(NAS), National Research Council, scientists from around the country 
weighed in on the long-term plan of how the government should cope 
with this monumental task. The expert panel views the current plan as 
``problematic.'' 
For example, the report highlighted the fact that there is currently no 
long-term plan for the safe keeping of the public and the environment 
from the hazardous threats presented by these sites. 
``Details of the US Department of Energy's stewardship plans have yet 
to be specified, adequate funding has not been assured, and there is no 
convincing evidence that institutional controls--such as surveillance of 
radioactive and other hazardous waste left at sites, security fences, and 
deeds restricting land use--will prove reliable over the long run,'' the 
National Research Council said in a statement that announced the 
report's release. 
``These 144 sites were often used to manufacture weapons, or acted as 
test sites and in some instances they were processing sites where 
uranium was mined,'' said Robert Andrews of the National Research 
Council in Washington, DC. 
``There is a broad spectrum of sizes of sites and the amount of 
hazardous contaminates that are found at these places,'' he added. 
In addition to helping the DOE devise a framework for planning the long-
term institutional management of these weapons sites, the report stresses 
the importance of keeping abreast of new technologies and 
methodologies that are invented to better deal with these hazardous 
substances. They recommend continuing remediation, or cleanup, of 
these sites. 
``The NAS report breaks no new ground scientifically but serves the 
important purpose of starkly underscoring the long-term environmental 
and health threats posed by DOE weapons sites,'' said Tom Clements, 
the executive director of the Nuclear Control Institute, an independent 
research and advocacy center specializing in problems of nuclear 
proliferation. 
``While the report makes clear that DOE environmental efforts so far 
have been lacking in long-term vision and institutional support, the big 
question of how to address this problem must be solved by DOE itself,'' 
he said. 
``The report destroys the myth that 'cleaning up' the DOE sites is 
possible and that we will one day be able to walk away from the nuclear 
legacy of the Cold War. Unfortunately, that tarnished and dangerous 
legacy will forever remain with humankind,'' Clements added. 
The report ``should be seriously studied by those in Congress who have 
called for the elimination of the Department of Energy. The report clearly 
demonstrates that a strong and enduring institution, isolated from political 
bickering, must be put in place to oversee management of sites 
contaminated with dangerous chemical and radioactive substances,'' 
Clements told Reuters Health in an interview. 
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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
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