As a result of public backlash, Southern Co. has withdrawn its property in Alabama from a list of potential sites for the Energy Department’s deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test.
The projected $35 million, five-year field test would produce data on the feasibility of storing DOE-managed nuclear waste in 16,000-foot boreholes drilled into crystalline rock formations. It is one storage method the Obama administration is exploring as an alternative to the canceled geologic repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
After having failed to secure community support for two separate test sites in North Dakota and South Dakota earlier this year, Ohio-based contractor Battelle Memorial Institute eyed Newton, Ala., with the support of owner Southern Co., a southern utility.
The Dale County Commission earlier this month signed a letter of support for Battelle’s plans, but the Newton City Council quickly stepped in, approving a motion on Friday in opposition to the project.
“The proposed site is within the Newton town limits and the county commission should not be supporting this experiment without input from the Town of Newton,” the council’s motion reads, adding that lawmakers want to protect the Choctawhatchee River and the local farming industry.
DOE and Battelle have insisted that the field test will not involve any actual nuclear waste material, only surrogate containers, but residents in the Dakotas and now Alabama have all voiced the same concern: That a successful field test could one day lead to actual nuclear waste storage.
“There have been a number of questions and concerns raised by the community, and based on that, Southern Co. has decided to no longer participate,” Southern Co. spokesman Michael Sznajderman said in a telephone interview Monday. “(Southern Co. subsidiary) Alabama Power has been serving the state for 110 years, so we’re very sensitive to the wishes of the community or concerns of the community.”
Battelle spokesman T.R. Massey wrote in an email that the company understands Southern Co.’s decision to withdraw, and that Battelle is no longer exploring options in Alabama.
The Dale County plot was the second location to emerge in DOE’s latest solicitation, joining a site near Nara Visa, N.M., proposed by Georgia-based Enercon Federal Services and Utah-based DOSECC Exploration Services.
