Judge Rejects State Guidelines on Nuclear Waste Disposal Health

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



Judge Rejects State Guidelines on Nuclear Waste Disposal Health

Panel Urges Radioactive Waste Tests at Landfills

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Judge Rejects State Guidelines on Nuclear Waste Disposal Health



Jurist nullifies regulations allowing the dumping of low-grade 

radioactive material in landfills.  



By GARY POLAKOVIC, LA TIMES STAFF WRITER  



April 17, 2002 - A Sacramento County Superior Court judge has 

nullified recently enacted state regulations that allowed the dumping 

of low-grade radioactive waste in ordinary landfills.  



The court ruling, handed down last week and announced Tuesday, 

rebuffed state health officials who formulated a rule last year to 

make it easier and cheaper for companies and institutions to get rid 

of some nuclear waste.



In her ruling, Judge Gail D. Ohanesian stated that the regulations 

"will have a significant adverse environmental effect." In addition, 

the judge found that, contrary to the claims of state officials, 

California has authority to pursue more protective standards for 

radioactive waste disposal, but failed to consider that option--a 

breach of state law.



The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Committee to 

Bridge the Gap, the California Federation of Scientists and 

Physicians for Social Responsibility.



Those groups argued that landfills are not engineered to safely 

accommodate nuclear waste.



In addition, they said that the levels of radioactivity in the waste, 

though comparatively low, are still enough to cause serious health 

problems, including cancer, in people exposed to it.



"This is a great victory for protecting the public from unnecessary 

radiation exposure," said Daniel Hirsch, president of the Committee 

to Bridge the Gap, an anti-nuclear group.



"The Davis administration had deregulated the waste, and the court 

has found it illegal."



Businesses and institutions that generate the radioactive waste now 

await guidance on what standards state health officials will use to 

govern cleanup and disposal.



In California, at least half a dozen power plants and laboratory 

sites are poised for decommissioning, which will generate large 

volumes of waste that will have to be stored on site or sent out-of-

state to facilities licensed to accept the waste.



The cost of disposal in licensed dumps is much higher than the cost 

of putting the waste in local landfills.



Places where nuclear waste cleanups are underway include Rocketdyne's 

Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Simi Valley and one reactor at 

Southern California Edison's San Onofre power plant.



Universities, major hospitals and some biotechnology firms also 

generate low-level radioactive waste.



Rocketdyne's shipments of nuclear debris to the Bradley Landfill in 

Sun Valley prompted a public outcry recently.



Whether such disposal practices pose a public health threat has been 

the subject of intense debate.



Company spokesman Dan Beck said the waste does not put people's 

health at risk.



"We need to hear from the regulatory agencies on what it [the ruling] 

means. Then we'll comply with whatever guidelines the state 

develops," Beck said.



California has been struggling to develop a strategy for radioactive 

waste disposal.



One remedy pursued by former Gov. Pete Wilson called for building a 

disposal site at Ward Valley in the Mojave Desert 20 miles from the 

Colorado River.



However, that plan was blocked by opponents concerned that the waste 

could make its way into drinking water supplies.



The new regulations were intended to allow some of the waste to be 

diverted to up to 170 landfills statewide.



"[California's Department of Health Services] has been playing fast 

and loose with the facts for too long, and the court caught up with 

them.



"This regulation created a public health threat and an intolerable 

environmental risk," said state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles).



Yet the legal ruling tosses California's program for low-level 

radioactive waste disposal into a quandary.



Romero has introduced a bill that would require low-level radioactive 

waste be disposed at approved sites only.



The Senate Environmental Quality Committee is scheduled to consider 

the bill Monday.



The state regulations that the court rejected allowed waste to enter 

a landfill as long as it averaged no more than 25 millirems of 

radioactivity per shipment, an exposure equivalent to about 21/2 

chest X-rays annually.



But the risk of fatal cancer over the lifetime of a person exposed 

every year even to 25 millirems is one in 1,000, Hirsch said.



Hirsch maintained that the 25-millirem average could permit someone 

to receive far higher doses than the average.



Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) has introduced a bill that would 

require cleanup of contaminated sites to meet the strictest 

federal standards imposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency.



Kuehl said such cleanup standards would make the risk of cancer 

hundreds of times lower than was the case under the regulation 

that was struck down.



A spokesman for the state health department declined to comment on 

the court decision until agency officials had more opportunity 

to review it. 

--------------------------



Panel Urges Radioactive Waste Tests at Landfills



April 17, 2002) - LA Times - Citing a distrust of federal regulatory 

agencies, a Los Angeles City Council committee recommended 

Tuesday that its inspectors test landfills for levels of radioactive 

waste.



"We're going to see if the federal government is lying to us," 

Councilman Nate Holden said during a special meeting of the city's 

Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee.



"We want to make sure Los Angeles citizens are safe," he said. The 

move follows reports that Rocketdyne's Santa Susana field 

laboratory near Chatsworth disposed of low-level radioactive 

materials at Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley without the knowledge of 

state or local regulators or the landfill operators.



Federal and state agencies assured the committee that health risks, 

including cancer, that are associated with the low-level radioactive 

material are minimal.



The U.S. Department of Energy is cleaning up the Rocketdyne site.



The council committee also reiterated its support for legislation 

calling for stringent disposal of radioactive materials. 



-------------------------------------------------

Sandy Perle

Director, Technical

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net

E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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