Temporary Nuclear Waste Storage May Be Expanded : Environment: Stalemate over low-level dump is forcing officials to consider three other facilities in state.

Fearful that a controversial low-level nuclear waste dump in the Mojave Desert may not open on time, state health officials and private companies are quietly exploring the possibility of storing the radioactive waste in at least three California communities.

Under one proposal, existing depots in Vista, Turlock and Fremont that are used for the temporary storage of low-level radioactive waste before it is shipped to out-of-state dumps would be converted to longer-term storage sites. The volume of radioactive waste that could be stored there would increase dramatically.

Neither the waste brokers who operate the sites nor hospitals and other waste generators are overly enamored of the idea. All worry about additional financial liability in the event of problems.

“That makes me very nervous,” said Donna L. Earley, director of radiation and environmental safety at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “I’m sending barrels to sit out on a Tarmac for three or four years? What happens if the barrels bust? From a safety standpoint that makes no sense.”

Low-level waste includes contaminated material used in medical practice, scientific research, industrial processes and nuclear power plants. It does not include the highly radioactive spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants.

Although waste brokers say the storage areas would be enclosed and secure, they worry about being stuck with a company’s waste if the firm goes out of business before the waste can be transferred to a dump for permanent burial.

But all agree that they may be left with little choice. There is no sign of a breakthrough in a simmering political controversy that has delayed construction of a low-level nuclear waste dump 23 miles west of Needles in the Mojave Desert’s Ward Valley. The dump was scheduled to open next January.

Under federal law, three states that have accepted California’s low-level nuclear waste are expected to close their borders to it Jan. 1, 1993. California hospitals, biotechnology companies, electrical utilities and others have been counting on the opening of the 70-acre Ward Valley site by then.

But the dump has come under sustained criticism from the city of Needles, environmentalists, elected state officials and others who warn that California taxpayers may be financially liable if the dump leaks or causes other environmental damage. Critics also have attacked the record of U.S. Ecology, the company that would operate the dump. The company has been hit by multimillion-dollar lawsuits in other states where its low-level nuclear dumps have contaminated ground water.

The resulting controversy has led to a stalemate in Sacramento between the State Lands Commission and the state Department of Health Services. Both agencies have balked at acquiring the site, which is a prerequisite for its being licensed.

Before the dump can open, the state must take title from the current owner, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. For years, it was assumed that the State Lands Commission would handle the transaction.

Now, however, two of the commission’s three members, Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy and state Controller Gray Davis, have balked, citing the liability concerns. Both are candidates for the U.S. Senate in the upcoming Democratic primary.

Gov. Pete Wilson could direct his Department of Health Services to take title to the land. But so far he has rebuffed pleas from industry to become personally involved. The Department of Health Services continues to insist that the lands commission must take title. While the department is expected to issue a license soon to U.S. Ecology to operate the dump, the license will carry the condition that the state own the land.

Meanwhile, generators of low-level waste as well as waste brokers are looking for options.

PWN Environmental, a low-level nuclear waste broker in Vista, filed an application last week with the Department of Health Services to amend its operating license to allow it to store five times more radioactive waste volume than its current 5,000-cubic-foot limit. Vista is about 10 miles east of Oceanside.

Two other waste brokers are considering similar action--Environmental Management and Controls in Turlock and Allied Ecology Services of the Bay Area city of Fremont.

At the same time, the Department of Health Services’ radiological health branch--which issues licenses to the waste brokers--has begun a preliminary review of state regulations in anticipation of the applications.

“If the (Ward Valley dump) site did not open, then I think it’s pretty clear we would have to go into extended storage of low-level waste,” said Edgar Bailey, chief of the radiological health branch.

The waste brokers currently may store liquid radioactive waste for no longer than six months and solid radioactive waste for up to two years. “Now we’re looking at an indefinite storage period,” said Thomas A. Gray, president of the Turlock firm.

Timothy Tucker, facility manager at PWN Environmental in Vista, said that if brokers are not allowed to expand, the state may be faced with a flood of applications from individual waste generators asking permission to expand radioactive waste storage at hospitals, universities and business locations throughout the state.

“Is it better to have a few secured storage areas, or have the waste generators piling it up when they don’t have the ability to take the safeguards?” Tucker asked. “As a health physicist, my main job is to protect people.”

While electrical utilities say they can continue to store low-level waste at their plants for as long as five years, hospitals, universities and biomedical research firms often do not have the capacity to store it for more than a period of weeks or several months.

About 135,000 cubic feet of low-level waste would be buried at the Ward Valley site annually, most of it from California. Other participating states include Arizona, North Dakota and South Dakota.