The Department of Energy this week publicly released its long-delayed draft Record of Decision for a proposed new landfill to handle low-level radioactive waste from building demolition at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
The 350-page draft on the Environmental Management Disposal Facility, dated June 22, now will undergo a 60-day review, by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The state and federal entities are regulators of the DOE site under the Superfund law, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
The review can be extended upon request, a DOE spokesperson said by email Tuesday.
The draft lays out “the selected remedy” agreed on by the government agencies as construction of a new 2.2-million-cubic yard landfill in the Central Bear Creek Valley of the 32,000-acre Oak Ridge site. The facility would not be far from the existing Oak Ridge low-level landfill, which is expected to reach full capacity before the end of the decade.
The cost estimate for construction, operation and eventual closure of the new five-cell landfill is $732 million, according to the draft. The cost per cubic yard would be $276 in 2016 dollars, cheaper than most other options, including shipping all the low-level waste offsite, which was estimated between $675 and $767. The draft said 10% of the waste produced at Oak Ridge will not meet criteria for the onsite landfill and will be shipped elsewhere, such as the Nevada National Security Site or the EnergySolutions commercial site in Utah.
“The waste ought to be shipped out west to a dry site in an unpopulated area, where it can be maintained safely over the long term,” said Virginia Dale, president of Advocates of the Oak Ridge Reservation, said in a Friday email. The new landfill is apt to have a “stigmatizing effect on the Oak Ridge community and its economy for decades to centuries,” she added.
The current Oak Ridge landfill is nearly full with low-level waste, including contaminated soil and debris from demolition at the old K-25 uranium enrichment site, now known as the East Tennessee Technology Park. The replacement will take such waste from the Y-12 Nuclear Security Complex and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The EPA under President Joe Biden is reviewing a decision on radionuclide effluent runoff regulation at the site issued in December by former EPA chief during the Donald Trump administration, Andrew Wheeler.
The proposed landfill plan was issued for public comment on Sept. 10, 2018, and the review period was completed on Jan. 9, 2019, for a total review period of 120 days after two extensions. The draft ROD includes DOE’s response to public comments. The draft ROD has been delayed numerous times, with the last one coming in December.
“Environmental justice concerns have been raised regarding communities immediately north of the main Y-12 industrial area,” according to the draft decision. “Based on the proposed locations for alternatives, coupled with the proximities of these proposed locations when compared with surrounding communities, it was demonstrated that no community is disproportionately affected by the potential environmental consequences presented by the onsite alternatives.”
