Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
12/5/2014
A proposal currently under consideration in the Utah state legislature would combine the Department of Environmental Quality’s divisions of Radiation Control and Solid and Hazardous Waste into one organization. The purpose of the proposed move is to improve “efficiency,” according to a Utah DEQ spokesperson this week. “There is a legislative proposal that essentially combines the two divisions for efficiencies,” DEQ spokesperson Donna Kemp Spangler said this week. “The Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste’s workload has really dwindled because of the closure of the Kemp Chemical Weapons Depot. With that, there are opportunities to look at consolidating two divisions into one because radiation control has the same kind of engineers and scientists who can do the job. At this stage, it’s just a proposal, and it’s being driven by a legislative proponent.” With the proposed consolidation, the oversight responsibilities at the EnergySolutions’ Clive facility would remain unchanged while the review of depleted uranium would continue as usual, Spangler said.
HEAL Utah, the environmental activist group that has opposed depleted uranium disposal in the state, is concerned the proposed change could negatively impact the quality of the state’s review of DU disposal. “The decision on whether to allow nuclear waste which poses a hazard for literally thousands of generations of Utahns is the most significant decision Utah regulators will make for many years,” HEAL Policy Director Matt Pacenza said. “We’re very worried that at the last minute, that decision would be yanked out of the hands of staff who have studied the issue for years and handed to someone who has only weeks to learn the details. It’s a deeply complex matter that raises a myriad of technical and policy issues.” HEAL also is concerned that the proposal would alter the state’s radiation control board with inexperienced members. “With the Depleted Uranium decision looming in 2015, this may not be the best time to be asking regulators to quickly get up-to-speed on specialized nuclear waste matters,” Pacenza added.
EnergySolutions Request Additional Time in DU Review
Meanwhile, the state of Utah last week granted a request from EnergySolutions for an additional three-month extension before the public comment period begins in the state’s review of the company’s performance assessment for the disposal of depleted uranium at its Clive, Utah, disposal site. The new public comment period for Utah’s Safety Evaluation Report on the site’s performance assessment is now set to begin on April 6, 2015, rather than the scheduled Jan. 12 start date. Two meetings for public comment are now scheduled for the week of May 4, 2015, in Tooele and Salt Lake City, and the period will close on May 29, a week longer than initially planned so as to allow the public time to comment, the state said.
According to the request, EnergySolutions needed additional time to complete a Clive and regional dune soil layer gradation study, which should give a better assessment of the site’s capabilities to accept the waste stream. “While significant progress has been accomplished in preparation of the detailed response, EnergySolutions considers an expanded evaluation of the soil layer differentiation of Clive-area and regional dunes a critical component to better defining the long-term alteration of the proposed Federal Cell evapotranspirative cover system,” EnergySolutions Manager of Compliance and Permitting Vern Rogers said in a Nov. 14 letter to the state. He added, “It is expected that this additional research will have significant impact on the confidence bounds of the Department’s ultimate Safety Evaluation Report.”
Utah’s Division of Radiation Control originally planned to release on Sept. 8 the Safety Evaluation Report for its evaluation of the PA, but EnergySolutions requested more time back in September to officially document its answers to some of the state’s questions. This pushed the start date to January, which has been now pushed back again until April. EnergySolutions submitted Clive’s performance assessment for DU back in 2011 following the Utah Radiation Control Board’s 2010 decision to require a quantitative compliance period for DU out to 10,000 years, with a second qualitative review out to peak dose (approximately 2.5 million years). Subsequently, the state required additional information and a revised design for a DU disposal cell, which EnergySolutions resubmitted this past summer.
