Science Panel’s Green Light Is More Like a Yellow One : Babbitt should still not rush to judgement on Ward Valley nuclear dump
Last week the National Academy of Sciences issued a report saying that a proposed low-level (not low-risk) radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley probably would not threaten the nearby Colorado River. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who must decide whether to release federal land for the dump, commissioned the report and must now review its scientific adequacy. His final decision, however, will properly be based on human as well as scientific considerations.
One such consideration is the relative urgency of the waste-disposal question. The $3.1-million lobbying and public relations campaign waged by the would-be operator of the dump has emphasized medical waste. But medical waste constitutes only the tiniest fraction of the waste destined for the dump. The majority would be nuclear power plant waste. Babbitt should ask whether an interim solution separating medical waste from nuclear power plant waste is not, in the end, a small price to pay for protecting an irreplaceable natural asset like the Colorado River. For most medical waste, alternatives exist. He should consider them.
In 1980, when Congress ordered the states to organize into groups and take low-level radioactive waste disposal off federal hands, it created a zero-sum game for the states. Whichever state opened the first dump was in danger of becoming nuclear toilet for the nation. Nevada’s Gov. Bob Miller closed a low-level radioactive waste dump operated in his state by the company U.S. Ecology partly because the dump had accepted waste from too far afield. Would some future California governor have to do the same here? U.S. Ecology’s license to operate the Ward Valley dump is being challenged in court. Babbitt needs to ask whether Ward Valley--like Beatty, Nev.--would open only to close as pollution occurs and violations come to light.
Every dump that U.S. Ecology has operated has leaked, even the Beatty dump whose design and desert site were initially touted as proof that no leakage could occur at Ward Valley. Whether or not Ward Valley is suitable in the abstract for low level radioactive waste disposal, Babbitt can and should base his decision on the potential consequences of the transfer. If the pollution occurs and the dump operator declares bankruptcy, could taxpayers be left to pay for the cleanup?
Finally, Babbitt must ask whether, in truth, the academy study has given him an environmental green light. There are reasons to think it has not. The report effectively conceded to critics of the site that if radioactivity migrated downward to ground water, it would eventually make its way to the Colorado River. The report then neutralized this alarming admission by stipulating that only 10 curies (five ounces) of highly toxic plutonium would be disposed of at the site. Unfortunately, U.S. Ecology’s amended license foresees the disposal of about 3,500 curies (120 pounds) at Ward Valley.
The prior question, of course, is whether radioactivity can in fact migrate downward to ground water, and on this crucial point the academy report is in virtually unprecedented disarray. During 38 years, 34 reports by the academy’s Board on Radioactive Waste Management have been unanimous; we know of none that has not been. This report includes two striking dissents. The dissenters note that rapid downward migration of radioactivity has occurred at the Beatty dump and cite measurements indicating that the same has happened already at the Ward Valley site. Even the majority concedes that only further testing of radioactive migration can finally resolve this question. But going gratuitously and, in our view, alarmingly beyond its scientific mandate, the majority then adds that the dump’s opening should not be delayed while the testing is done.
The proposed testing is neither costly nor time-consuming. While he prepares for the final evidentiary hearing he has promised, Babbitt could do California a great favor by putting safety first and ordering that the testing be done immediately.
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Find the Medical Waste
Low-level radioactive waste received at commercial disposal sites in 1993 by curies.
Industrial: 0.1%
Medical: 0.1%
Government: 23.0%
Utility: 76.8%
*
If a dump opens at Ward Valley, it will receive most of its waste from non-medical waste generators.
* Source: U.S. Department of Energy
