Good
news for our nearby Millstone Nuclear Power Plant
In a move that will
roll back safety standards that have been observed for decades, the Trump
administration reportedly has plans to reclassify nuclear waste previously
listed as "high-level" radioactive to a lower level, in the interest
of saving money and time when disposing of the material.The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to observe a new interpretation of which nuclear waste qualifies as "high-level waste," which must be disposed of deep underground to avoid contaminating the surrounding environment.
Under the new standards, radioactive materials at three nuclear sites will be classified as low-risk, enabling officials to dispose of the waste in shallow pits.
The Hanford Site in
Washington state, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Idaho
National Laboratory all
contain millions of
gallons of sludge and other waste following decades of use by the DOE, which
reprocessed nuclear rods at the sites when the department was extracting
plutonium for hydrogen bombs.
The DOE for decades
classified any material that was created during reprocessing as high-level
waste, but it will now label the sludge at the three sites as safe due to its
level of radioactivity.
Under the new rules,
the waste—which includes toxic and radioactive elements such as uranium and
plutonium—can now be stored in shallow pits that may leak into the surrounding
soil.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Charlestown is only 25 miles downwind from the Millstone Nuclear Power plant outside of New London, CT. 3.6 million pounds of spent nuclear rods - currently classified as high-level nuclear waste - are currently stored there, more or less permanently since there is no place to send this deadly waste. The last thing we need is for the Trump administration to lighten up on regulating this material. - Will Collette
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who is running for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential race, slammed the Trump administration for "unilaterally" deciding to potentially put Washington residents and their environment at risk, without consulting with the states in question—going against previous agreements between the states and the federal government.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who is running for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential race, slammed the Trump administration for "unilaterally" deciding to potentially put Washington residents and their environment at risk, without consulting with the states in question—going against previous agreements between the states and the federal government.
"By taking this
action, the administration seeks to cut out state input and move towards
disposal options of their choosing, including those already deemed to be unsafe
by their own assessments and in violation of the existing legally binding
agreement," Inslee said in a statement. "We will consider all options to stop
this reckless and dangerous action."
The Energy Department
claims that downgrading the risk level of the sludge is necessary to allow for
faster clean-up of the sites and to save money for the federal government—a
claim which "flies in the face of sound science and judgment,"
according to Columbia Riverkeeper, a non-profit group which aims to protect
Washington state's Columbia River.
"The Trump
administration's attempt to cut corners with nuclear waste undermines
effective, long-term cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Site," said Lauren Goldberg, legal and program director at
the organization.
"People in the Pacific Northwest value clean water and strong salmon runs."
"People in the Pacific Northwest value clean water and strong salmon runs."
The Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) called the DOE's move "irresponsible and
outrageous.”
"The Trump
administration is moving to fundamentally alter more than 50 years of national
consensus on how the most toxic and radioactive waste in the world is managed
and ultimately disposed of," said Geoff Fettus, senior attorney at NRDC. "No matter
what they call it, this waste needs a permanent, well-protected disposal option
to guard it for generations to come."
At the Seattle-based
newspaper The Stranger, Katie Herzog wrote that the DOE's action is the latest
attempt by the Trump administration to "change the definition" of a
problem to avoid addressing it effectively.
Recently, the Trump
administration has also sought to change the official government definition of the
poverty line to avoid paying for government benefits for struggling families,
and the definition of
domestic violence to
limit the funds that go to agencies serving survivors.
Reclassifying
dangerous elements, one critic wrote on social media, "doesn't mean its
going to make it any less harmful to the public."