Mining Awareness: Burying Dangerous Radioactive Waste in Texas- LLW Another Dilute & Deceive Scam
/March 8, 2015 By Mining Awareness
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Low Level Waste is a misnomer. The same dangerous, long-lived radionuclides are included, they just put less per weight, making it another dilute to deceive scam. Instead of diluting with water and air, like for the nuclear reactor emissions, they dilute with other waste. And, even then the NRC has a web site typo allowing more concentration: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/the-dangerous-us-nrc-typo-making-low-level-radioactive-waste-more-radioactive-than-allowed-at-wipp/
This is how they bury the waste!
It is totally mind-boggling that they can just bury highly dangerous, long-lived radionuclides such as plutonium 241, which becomes americium 241, along with other alpha emitters, and get by with it!
People have to understand that as long as there are nuclear reactors (and nuclear weapons-labs) that there is going to be dangerous, long-lived nuclear waste and someone is going to have to take it. If everyone refuses to take it, then the government will impose it on more than one unwilling community. People know it’s not being done right, so they don’t want the nuclear waste. Nuclear energy-waste and democracy don’t mix.
The man who started this dump is dead (and roasting), but the dump lives on and it will live on and on and on. The Plutonium 241 to Americium 241 will be an environmental and human risk for 100s of years, and even then it will become another radioactive element. Other alpha emitters will go on and on for thousands of years. And, of course, the article says that west Texas is “remote”, just like UK MOD called Chapelcross Scotland “remote”. It’s not remote if you live near it; it’s not remote if it has an accident like WIPP did; it’s not remote if there is a serious transport accident which could be near you, in fact.
What are these nasty looking things for? It looks like the evaporation ponds for ISL uranium mining. Does it have to do with leaking leachate? Or “treatment”?
They should call west Texas semi-arid, not remote!
Publicly traded means that it has to turn a profit and this is not good for radioactive waste! It needs to be done right and not for profit.
From Wikipedia:
“Waste Control Specialists is a treatment, storage, & disposal company dealing in radioactive, hazardous, and mixed wastes. Developed and controlled by Texas billionaire investor Harold Simmons until his death at the end of 2013, the company was founded in Dallas, Texas in 1989 as a landfill operator, and awarded a unique license for disposal of low level radioactive waste in 2009. Its main operations are in remote West Texas.
WCS is one of five subsidiaries of the holding company Valhi, Inc., with corporate offices in Dallas. Valhi, Inc. is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker VHI.
Operations in Andrews, Texas
The organization’s main operation is a fully permitted, 1,338-acre treatment, storage and disposal facility near Andrews, Texas.
WCS’ facility in western Andrews County is the only commercial facility in the United States licensed in more than 30 years to dispose of Class A, B and C low-level radioactive waste. It is also licensed for the treatment and storage of low-level radioactive waste, and has served as a temporary storage facility for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) projects.[1]
WCS met all operating guidelines established by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).[2] TCEQ Executive Director (August 2004 to June 2008), Glenn Shankle, later became a lobbyist for WCS. State records indicate he earned as much as $149,999 per year from WCS.[3]
The WCS facility also is the site of the disposal facility for the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact, and most recently was the site of the storage and disposal of byproduct material from the DOE Fernald, Ohio cleanup site. [4] In 2011 a vote was held by the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission that will allow WCS to import waste from 36 other states across the US.[5]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Control_Specialists
CONCRETE DEGRADES! TARP GETS HOLES-DEGRADES!
Wikipedia continues: “Disposal of low-level radioactive waste will be in concrete containers buried 30 to 100 feet below the surface in tarp-lined cells in the red bed clay formations. Space between the containers will be grouted to help prevent shifting. As the cells are filled, they will be covered by more than 300 feet of liner material and red bed clay and the surface will be restored to its natural state.[6]
The plant is located 5 miles east of Eunice, New Mexico, and 35 miles west of Andrews. The surrounding area on both sides of the state border, “nuclear alley”, also includes:
the National Enrichment Facility (owned and operated by the Urenco Group) in Eunice
the deep geological repository Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP; managed by the United States Department of Energy), and
the proposed first commercial uranium de-conversion facility in the United States, a project of International Isotopes, Inc.
Criticism
Critics allege that millions in donations by Harold Simmons to Texas Governor Rick Perry and other politicians influenced political support for the controversial project.
After WCS drilled almost 600 wells to document the hydrology of the site, the state of Texas determined the WCS facility does not sit above or adjacent to any underground drinking water formations.[7] The Texas Water Development Board purportedly changed maps that had previously indicated the site lay above the Ogallala Aquifer.[8] The individuals responsible for approving the facility’s license at TCEQ, and those who [allegedly] revised aquifer maps, were appointed by Governor Perry. Members of the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission, which voted to expand the facility, were also appointed by Governor Perry.[9]
Critics also cite WCS’ safety record after losing a 22-ton shipment of radioactive material in 2001 for almost a month.[10] The company was fined in 2004 & 2005 for a string of incidents including an employee improperly releasing radioactive material by flushing it down a toilet. The company agreed to pay $161,000 in fines.[11] ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Control_Specialists The NRC allows putting a certain amount of radioactive waste in drains. Did they exceed that amount? Did they forget to dilute it? Or is it against Texas law?
See local citizen concerns and protest here: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/radioactive-waste-dump-transport-safety-liability-aquifer-concerns-in-texas-llw-2011/
What the law says. The NRC typo – still uncorrected a few days ago- screen shot is found and discussed here: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/the-dangerous-us-nrc-typo-making-low-level-radioactive-waste-more-radioactive-than-allowed-at-wipp/
“PART 61—LICENSING REQUIREMENTS FOR LAND DISPOSAL OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE”
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-title10-vol2/pdf/CFR-2011-title10-vol2-part61.pdf (Emphasis added)
Moving Nuclear Waste from Savannah River Site South Carolina to WIPP before the accident.
Why they will have to by-pass democracy
Coming to your neighborhood?
WIPP on 22 May 2014
Commit to Shut Down the Nuclear Industry This Year
References for Wikipedia Article:
1. “Waste Control Specialists”. Archived from the original on 2010-08-19. WCS is now the only facility in the United States licensed in the last 30 years, to dispose of Class A, B, and C low level radio active waste.
2. “Radio Active Material License” (PDF). Archived from the original on January 2010. Retrieved 2009-11-17. Radio Active Materials License |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
3. “Texas Ethics Commission Archive”.
Fischer, Timothy. “US EPA Feild Production Center”. Archived from the original on January 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-19. WCS is now the only facility in the United States licensed in the last 30 years, to dispose of Class A, B, and C low level radio active waste.
4. “Senate Approves Bringing In More Radioactive Waste”.
5. “Waste Control Specialists”. Archived from the original on 2010-08-19. WCS is now the only facility in the United States licensed in the last 30 years, to dispose of Class A, B, and C low level radio active waste.
6. The WCS website states that, although water is present at 800-1,000 feet below the surface, the water is considered “non potable and too salty for irrigation use”. (http://www.wcstexas. com/fac_features.html)
7. “How Does Your Water Glow?”.
8. “Perry Donor’s Radioactive Waste Site Deal Scrutinized”.
9. “Coming Soon To A Highway Near You”.
10. “Good to Glow”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Control_Specialists
