Whither Goes Calvert Cliffs Low-Level Radioactive Waste?

NOVEMBER 5, 2010 2:37PM

Whither Goes Calvert Cliffs Low-Level Radioactive Waste?

Crabshell Alliance, PO Box 65111, Baltimore, MD 21209

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

November 5, 2010

 FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Steven Soifer, Ph.D., Associate Professor University of Maryland School of Social Work

ssoifer@ssw.umaryland.edu

443.898.2141

or

Gwen DuBois, M.D., MPH,   Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility

gdubois@pol.net

410-615-0717

Rick Janati, Administrator ASLLRWC; Chief, Division of Nuclear Safety, PA Bureau of Radiation Protection

rjanati@state.pa.us

717.787.2163

 

Appalachian States Low-Level Radioactive WASTE COMMISSION REPORTS CALVERT CLIFFS TO SHIP LLRW WASTE TO TEXAS 

 

Crabshell Alliance members,  attending the annual meeting of the Appalachian States LLRW Commission on Friday, November 5^th, 2010 in Harrisburg, PA.  heard from the Commission’s Administrator, Rick Janati, that Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant is planning to ship its Class B & C low-level radioactive waste for storage to the Waste Control Specialists (WCS) Disposal Facility in Texas, and may already be doing so. Currently, Calvert Cliffs has inadequate space for onsite storage of Class B & C radioactive waste.

 

It’s uncertain that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved the waste shipment plans, and the Maryland Department of Energy (MDE) could neither confirm nor deny what is actually happening.The Texas facility, which is expected to be up and running for the disposal of Class B & C LLRW as early as fall 2011, is presently accepting the shipment of LLRW to its site for storage. from outside its Compact States (Texas and Vermont).

 

Steven Soifer, Ph.D, a member of the Crabshell Alliance and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, said: “The whole question of where Calvert Cliffs 3 is currently storing its Class B & C LLRW, and its future plans for it, is absolutely unclear. The public is in the dark.   Gwen Dubois, M.D, commented: “To think that there could be a third nuclear power plant there with such storage limitations is patently absurd.”

 

Data from the American Nuclear Society reveals that over 2/3 of all U.S. states (including Maryland and Washington, D.C.) have no place to ship their Class B and C (the most dangerous kind) of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW).  As a consequence, all federal and state government agencies (except the U.S. Department of Energy), as well as every private and public corporation that produce LLRW in 36 states have no place to ship it, and thus must store it onsite or contract to store it offsite.

 

Universities, medical and research centers, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and nuclear power plants in these 36 states are in a real jam. Ever since the Barnwell, S.C. waste site closed in July 2008, there has been no place to send Class B & C LLRW in states with no approved storage site.

 

When Congress passed the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act in 1980 (LLRWPA, amended in 1985), each state became responsible for the disposal of their own LLRW. However, states have not been in compliance with the Act, and few have “bit the bullet” to do so. While there are ten “interstate” compacts, few are operative.  

 

The Crabshell Alliance is a Maryland activist group deeply concerned about nuclear power and waste issues in the U.S. 

 

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Salon.com

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

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