American Ecology: Annul Low-level Radioactive-waste Impositions
Jack K. Lemley, chairman of American Ecology Corp. (Boise, ID) on September 3 asked for repeal of the federal Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act. His call came in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee forum on the issue of low-level radioactive waste disposal by the Department of Energy.
American Ecology operates the only low-level radioactive waste-disposal facility operating under the 1980 law.
In his testimony, Lemley demonstrated that the act forces costs to spiral. Yet, he said, it offers the public no more protection than the free-market system that served waste generators for decades prior to the 1980s.
Lemley said the law treats government and civilian low-level radioactive waste differently--to no constructive end.
He said, "In 1997, 21 federal agencies and installations… were approved for waste disposal at Richland. DOE is conspicuous by its absence."
Lemley said unless the federal law governing the disposal of low-level radioactive waste coherently addresses government and private waste as a single unit, two adverse consequences will plague society:
- Utility ratepayers and other ordinary consumers will suffer huge disposal bills.
- Millions of cubic feet of environmentally sound disposal space at US Ecology's Richland facility and other commercial sites will go unused at the end of their licensed operating periods.
American Ecology provides processing, packaging, transportation, remediation, and disposal services for generators of hazardous waste and low-level radioactive waste at licensed facilities throughout the U.S. It has been designated by multi-state "compacts" as the developer and operator of two proposed disposal sites.
Low-level radioactive waste comes from medical facilities, universities, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical research centers, utility companies, and other sources. Contaminated soils, tools, and protective clothing are typical of the low-level radioactive materials that DOE facilities generate for disposal.
Contact: American Ecology Corporation, Scott Peyron. Tel: 208-388-3800.