The Department of Energy cannot pass the buck to localities when accidents happen at old nuclear weapons sites post-cleanup, an advocacy group for municipalities bordering DOE installations said.
In a letter to Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) said DOE’s response to a request for clearer protocols “for site emergencies at former defense nuclear facilities” is “unacceptable and potentially dangerous.”
The Aug. 26 letter, signed by ECA’s executive director Seth Kirshenberg, follows what ECA called an inadequate response to a January letter triggered by a September 2023 explosion at the former Mound Site in Miamisburg, Ohio.
Local emergency crews arrived at the site first, ECA wrote.
“Remnants of an unknown, potentially hazardous gas canister with a Nazi swastika were discovered,” according to the ECA letter. When locals contacted DOE, “they were told that the city or the Community Reuse Organization (CRO), as the entity to which the land was conveyed, had responsibility.
“ECA reached out to DOE to underscore the importance of investigating, especially given the explosion took place near a publicly accessible green space and walking path for the Miamisburg community,” according to this week’s letter.
“ECA is concerned that DOE’s official response regarding the incident (in a community that DOE lists as an environmental justice community) is wrong from both a policy and legal perspective,” ECA said.
Once a Manhattan Project nuclear weapons site, Mound was cleaned up under a 1993 agreement between DOE, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio. Much of the site has been cleared for development and an existing business park, according to DOE, which assigned responsibility for environmental monitoring to its Office of Legacy Management in 2010.
DOE is supposed to indemnify and “hold harmless” the communities for post-cleanup problems connected with the federal government’s prior work on the property, Kirshenberg said in the letter.
“Despite this, DOE initially said it would not investigate,” according to ECA. “Finally, under increasing pressure, they did, but the situation raises a legacy problem that endangered a community and could do so again in the future if not properly addressed.”
ECA said DOE should take the lead. “DOE has the expertise, the contractors, and the budget to best respond to these situations,” according to the recent letter. Managers at DOE Environmental Management, Legacy Management as well as EPA and the city of Miamisburg were also copied on the letter.
DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.