The state of South Carolina is implementing stricter environmental safety guidelines for the operator of a rural radioactive waste disposal facility, but has not released details while the license review continues.
The move comes after the state Supreme Court in March strongly suggested changes be made at the facility. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is technically not required to modify the license Chem-Nuclear has held since 1971 to operate the Barnwell Disposal Facility. Rather, the high court’s March 27 ruling asks DHEC to review the license because the current version is not sufficient to prevent contamination from leaking into groundwater.
“DHEC has reviewed the ruling from the S.C. Supreme Court regarding the Barnwell disposal site and is currently working with the facility to develop a path forward that ensures compliance with the Court’s decision along with all state and federal requirements,” agency spokeswoman Laura Renwick said.
Chem-Nuclear, a subsidiary of Utah-based nuclear services firm EnergySolutions, operates the 235-acre disposal site in Barnwell, about 70 miles southwest of the city of Columbia. The facility accepts Class A, B and C low-level wastes from nuclear power plants, including irradiated hardware and large components, steam generators, resins, and reactor pressure vessels.
Since 2004, the South Carolina Sierra Club had been challenging DHEC’s renewal of the operating license. In 2004, the environmental group told the South Carolina Administrative Law Court that DHEC “did not adequately prevent the migration of radioactive particles from the site into the groundwater and other waters surrounding the property.” Chem-Nuclear and DHEC disagreed.
Chem-Nuclear’s license has been renewed several times over the years. In some cases, renewals have included modifications to the license to reflect changing standards for waste disposal.
Despite efforts for improvements, the Sierra Club remained has advocated for DHEC to make more significant changes to the license.
The administrative law court sided with Chem-Nuclear in 2005 and approved the license renewal, but required the company to do more study on the best ways to safely store its waste. From there, the Sierra Club has fought the matter in the state Court of Appeals, hoping judges would require DHEC to tighten its regulations.
Finally, in March, the state high court sided with the Sierra Club in March by remanding the license back to DHEC for review. Specifically, the court wrote that Chem-Nuclear did not do enough to limit the amount of water flowing onto waste disposal units or limit waste and waste-contaminated water from migrating out of the disposal units.
The license remains intact. Renwick said voluntary modifications are on the way, though it is unclear what will be changed and how long it will take. “Though DHEC is not under a court-mandated time schedule related to this ruling, the department is committed to resolving the issue in a timely manner,” she added by email.
Barnwell is one of four commercially operated facilities around the nation for disposal of low-level radioactive waste. EnergySolutions also operates a disposal site in Clive, Utah. Chem-Nuclear and the Barnwell facility have caught flack in the past for various reasons, including the escape of tritium into the Savannah River. The state monitors the leakage and says it is below hazardous levels, but the issue remains a concern to the local community.
EnergySolutions in 2015 backed a state bill that would have reopened the facility to states other than New Jersey, Connecticut, and South Carolina. That would have overridden a 2008 agreement, known as the Atlantic Compact, that closed the facility’s doors to every state but those three. The state legislature did not pass the bill.
EnergySolutions has referred all inquiries to DHEC.
