There is no cause for concern regarding the shipment into the United States of 10,000 metric tons of radioactively contaminated material from Canada, according to a senior manager with the company that will process the waste.
UniTech Services Group, of Longmeadow, Mass., in October filed for separate Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses to import and export the material. The company said waste could be shipped to or from, or transferred between, its facilities in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, for processing and then disposal. At certain levels of remaining radioactivity, the material would either be shipped to Tennessee or back to Canada for final disposition.
The import license application describes the material as tools, metal, and other solid materials of different composition. Michael Fuller, UniTech’s manager of health physics and engineering, characterized the waste as ordinary paper, plastic, metal, and trash with “incidental amounts of radioactive contamination.”
UniTech’s export license application says each return shipment would contain no more than 15 grams of uranium-235, along with only micrograms of uranium-233 or plutonium, “if any.”
While Fuller said he was not authorized to discuss the point of origin of the waste, the export license application mentions Canadian power reactors. The nation has 19 nuclear power reactors, primarily in Ontario.
The NRC in March determined the import license was not necessary as the shipments were covered by the regulator’s general import license. It is still reviewing the application for the export license. In the meantime, the agency has received a series of comments from individuals and nongovernmental organizations expressing concern about possible safety and environmental dangers from the waste shipments, including from Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), whose district could be along the transport route.
Beyond Nuclear and four other environmental organizations earlier this month filed a petition with the NRC to intervene in opposition to the license application. They want the agency to require a specific import license for the waste.
“For the export application to be meaningfully understood by the public, it must be attended by full disclosure of the materials, wastes, processes, transport routes and alternative routes, plans for emergency response and admission of the legal level of cleanup that will be provided along with clarification of liability for all costs — environmental and medical — in case of release, as well as guarantee and procedures for notification of any release,” the petition says.
During a telephone interview last week, Fuller emphasized the safety and security measures that will be in place as the waste is moved through the United States and then treated. UniTech will follow all federal regulations for the transport of the material, including using qualified drivers, sealing the trucks so that any intrusion would be detected, and packing the material in plastic bags within intermodal containers designed to keep the public and environment safe.
“The basic idea is you’re not supposed to leak any radiation,” Fuller said.
At UniTech’s waste processing and remediation sites, the material will be surveyed with gamma ray spectrometers and other systems ahead of being cleaned to the point where minimal radiation remains.
“Materials that are sufficiently free of radioactive materials can be released for unrestricted use, in which case they can be dispositioned near the processing facility,” Fuller said in an email.
Waste with higher amounts of radioactive contamination, but still below the maximum set by Tennessee’s Bulk Survey for Release program – contributing no more than 1 millirem annually to any member of the public – would go to UniTech’s disposal facility in that state. “You get more than that when you get your teeth X-Rayed,” Fuller said.
By comparison, individuals in the United States are generally exposed to 300 millirems annually of background radiation, and higher levels elsewhere, Fuller added.
Any material that cannot be decontaminated to that level will be shipped back to Canada after processing, necessitating the export license. While he did not have a specific forecast, Fuller said exports to Canada “are expected to be the exception.”
Shipments will not begin until the NRC approves the export license, which could take a matter of months or up to one-and-a-half years. Individual shipments, with a maximum of 2,250 cubic feet, could be processed in a matter of a few days or weeks, Fuller said. “The permit applications are to expire in 2025. The intent is to perform ongoing services at least until then,” he said.
