Radioactive waste goes under tents (storage facility "not secure enough")

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government spent $62 million on a building to store and treat low-level radioactive waste at a California nuclear weapons laboratory, then decided the structure wasn't secure enough.

Hundreds of bright yellow, 55-gallon drums are stacked under the tents outside the building at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, east of San Francisco .

"You're not trying to tell me that between the building and a tent, the tent wins?" asked Tauscher, a Democrat. "In a post-Sept. 11 environment, you've got to say to yourself, 'Let's find a way to get that stuff in the building."'

The barrels hold liquid and solid hazardous wastes, as well as articles of clothing that became contaminated through exposure to highly radioactive materials, said Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis.

Terrorists' use of airplanes against the World Trade Center and Pentagon have raised concerns about the ability of nuclear plants and storage facilities to survive similar attacks.

Highly radioactive materials - spent fuel from nuclear reactors and other materials that emit dangerously high levels of radiation for thousands of years - are stored in other buildings at Livermore, Energy Department officials said.

Low-level wastes, like those being kept outside under tents, typically decay in a matter of years.

The Livermore building has been substantially complete since last June, but Tauscher said the Energy Department has refused to let Livermore workers begin using it. Tauscher said since January she has been given different explanations for why the building remains unused.

Initially, she said she was told the building could not withstand a direct hit from an airplane.

Then Jessie Roberson, the assistant energy secretary for environmental management, wrote Tauscher in May that the construction plans did not sufficiently assess potential hazards and risks - and what to do about problems that may arise.

A third explanation came from Davis, the Energy Department's chief spokesman in Washington, to whom calls to the laboratory were referred.

"The building is still under construction," Davis said. "If you use the facility to store waste, you can't continue with the construction. We're not going to compromise safety and security just to get it operating quicker."

Tauscher said no one, including Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, told her construction was ongoing.

"We can't even get a straight answer out of them," said Tauscher, the top Democrat on a House Armed Services Committee panel that oversees the Energy Department's reorganization, focusing on nuclear weapons programs.

Under the department's latest plan for the low-level waste, barrels of it would be stored inside beginning in September. Treatment wouldn't begin until August of next year.

The Energy Department has been trying since the mid-1980s to build a new decontamination and treatment facility at Livermore for low-level waste, fighting off objections from area residents before finally obtaining money from Congress in the late 1990s.

Tauscher attributed the delay to bureaucratic intransigence and said the Energy Department's record on the issue undermines the public's confidence.

"How could they consider a building built to their own specifications to be inadequate?" Tauscher asked. She has asked the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, to report on the situation.

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The wackos have opposed the construction and operation of secure, monitored, permanent LLW disposal facilities for years. The one proposed for California, in Ward Valley, has been the target of numerous lawsuits and delaying tactics, all initiated by the wackos.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, the area's congresswoman, is incredulous.

...and is also a CongressCreature strongly supported by the wackos. She should do the right thing and blame the wackos for opposing Ward Valley, and WIPP, and Yucca Mountain, and almost everything else proposed for managing these materials. But, expecting a 'Rat to do the right thing, well, you know...

I think she has a valid point = and it appears that the Livermore DOE office is/has/continues to be screwed up royally here.

.... But, then again, consider who ran the DOE for the past 8 years. This kind of foul-up was rewarded by Clinton for releasing nuclear weapons secrets to the Chinese, why shouldn't they release nuclear waste to the Americans?

--------...---...

By the way, high-level nuclear waste (like the quantity or radiation levels you get from nuclear power-production reactors) was NEVER created nor stored at Livermore Labs ---- It's research, not power nor weapons porduction.

Low level "laboratory" waste (samples, swipes, survey instruments, that sort of stuff) would be what's these waste barrels. Most likely, most of it is FROM SAMPLES taken to measure radiation levels after disposal of other material, from gowns and masks, and after cleaning up spills and as a by-product of sampling and urveys.

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