Re: State's Waste may go to Utah

[dryeamans@lanl.gov (David Yeamans, CST-7, 5-8832, dryeamans@lanl.gov)]

At the Harvard School of Public Health class on Low Level Waste (LLW)
Management in June, I had the pleasure of meeting Greg Copeland, from
Envirocare, in Utah.  He gave me the impression that the free market is
prevailing in LLW disposal.  Those with enough gusto to comply with Federal,
State, local, and NRC regulations are free to do business.  Envirocare is
doing that and so is South Carolina, formerly on behalf of the Southeast
Compact, but now on its own, having withdrawn from the compact.  All states
are required to go through a siting process and the compact arrangement
allows states to combine their efforts.

Now, South Carolina has seen the monetary value in accepting rad waste, and
rather than accepting their neighbors' waste because they are in the same
compact, SC is charging $235/ cubic foot for waste dumped, and is using the
money for schools.  If North Carolina wants to withhold its waste and export
it to Utah as punishment against its neighbor, it is welcome to do that.
The remaining 6 states in the compact may decide that SC is still the most
economical disposal site.  

It is odd that we are now using nuke waste to blackmail each other.  If the
stuff is so valuable that we withold it from our enemies, why do we want to
dispose of it in the first place?  On the other hand, if it is so dangerous
that we have to assure generations 10,000 years hence that they will be
protected from it, why don't we protect ourselves from it now by employing
rational disposal options instead of playing the NIMBY game?

My hat is off to South Carolina and to Envirocare.

>     
>I wanted to know if anyone has heard anything pertaining to this article
listed 
>below?
>
>        Low-level radioactive waste may be shipped to a desert landfill in
Utah,
>"spoiling" South Carolina's efforts to punish North Carolina for not opening a 
>landfill on time.  North Carolina originally agreed to complete a low-level 
>nuclear waste landfill in Wake county by 1993, but a license to build has been 
>delayed until at least 1997.  South Carolina has reopened its Barnwell
low-level
>waste landfill, but banned North Carolina from using it.  North Carolina 
>officials say that marketing efforts by Enviro Care Inc., a waste transport
and 
>processing company, may help the eight-member southeast compact dispose of 
>waste.  The compact last week authorized 200 factories, nuclear plants and 
>hospitals to ship their waste to Enviro Care's facility in Clive, UT.  Enviro 
>Care Dir.  Al Rafati:  "we have a square mile of land in a desert setting with 
>an arid climate that is 45 miles away from the nearest small town... and we
can 
>accept as much waste as we can process."  NC Division of Radiation Protection 
>Dir. Dwayne brown said that using Enviro Car's site "could make a considerable 
>impact on the revenue that South Caroline expects to generate" at its reopen 
>Barnwell facility.    
>
> GREENSBRO .NC. NEWS & RECORDS, 8/27/95, P. B3
> Associated Press  
>
>
>
>



.,:;-!+=*^&%#$@(^)?->;:,.
David Yeamans
CST-7, MS E516, (505) 665-8832
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544

dryeamans@lanl.gov