U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has added his support to a call by 76 nongovernmental groups across the nation to allow more time to comment on a Department of Energy proposal to change its interpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste.
The current 60-day comment period ends Dec. 10. Wyden and the stakeholder groups are asking Anne Marie White, DOE assistant secretary for environmental management, to provide for for another 120 days of public input.
The Energy Department’s proposal to narrow the scope of what is considered high-level waste “is departing from longstanding policies and legal interpretations,” Wyden wrote in a letter to White on Monday. The plan lowers the bar for the level of protection of future generations and the environment and “could lead to dramatically different clean-up practices and outcomes,” he said.
The stakeholder letter, sent to White on Nov. 14, was signed by Geoffrey Fettus, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and leaders of 74 other advocacy groups across the nation. They represent Hanford Challenge, Savannah River Site Watch, the Southwest Research and Information Center in New Mexico, the Snake River Alliance in Idaho, and the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability in Tennessee, among many others.
“We believe all interested stakeholders — and the DOE — agree that this decision requires thorough and thoughtful consideration by all affected parties,” said the stakeholder letter.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act and the Atomic Energy Act define high-level radioactive waste as “the highly radioactive material resulting from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, including liquid waste produced directly in reprocessing and any solid material derived from such liquid waste that contains fission products in sufficient concentrations.”
The Department of Energy is proposing that the definition could be interpreted so reprocessing waste would not be classified as high-level waste if it met either of two criteria. The first is that it would not exceed concentration limits for Class C low-level radioactive waste. The second is if it does not require disposal in a deep geologic repository as demonstrated through a performance assessment.
