WIPP

[StevenFrey@aol.com]

Dear RADSAFERS- 

At long last, WIPP has won EPA agreement that the site will be 
environmentally safe. Here is the Associated Press release on this 
development: 

Steve Frey, MS, CHP
Stevenfrey@aol.com
Phone: (800) 888-7008 (office), (714) 646-4631 (home)

.c The Associated Press 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Oct. 23) - An underground nuclear waste dump completed
nearly a decade ago may soon be getting radioactive garbage following a key
approval Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency ruled that the repository in salt beds near Carlsbad - about 300
miles southeast of Albuquerque - could safely contain radioactive waste.

''We take our responsibility very seriously that if this site is operated, it
is safe,'' said Richard Wilson, acting assistant administrator for the EPA's
Office of Air and Radiation.

The ruling is good news for the Department of Energy, which completed the
storage facility in 1988 after two decades of planning. The department's plan
is to bury plutonium-contaminated waste from the nation's defense industry
about a half-mile underground. The waste consists largely of contaminated
protective clothing, tools, equipment, sludge and soil.

Carlsbad residents generally favor the project, which has created hundreds of
jobs.

''If EPA feels this is a safe project, we feel it is time to continue and get
it open,'' Carlsbad Mayor Gary Perkowski said.

The EPA ruled the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant meets several safety standards,
including:

- ''A reasonable expectation'' that it would prevent human radiation doses
higher than the equivalent of about two chest X-rays per year for 10,000
years.

- Any groundwater contamination would not surpass levels allowed under
federal law governing drinking water.

- Markers would be placed around the site to discourage future generations
from accidentally disturbing it.

Environmentalists and others have raised questions for years about pockets of
brine below the facility that they say could cause the waste to shift. There
also are concerns over nearby mining and drilling, the instability of storage
rooms and the safety of hauling radioactive waste hundreds of miles to the
site about 300 miles from Albuquerque.

The EPA's final decision will depend on public comments collected over the
next four months and its assessment of those comments.

The project would receive about 37,700 waste shipments over its estimated
35-year life, largely from 10 federal sites in California, Colorado, Idaho,
Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina and Washington.

 AP-NY-10-23-97 2136EDT