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by: prostock50 3018 of 3020
Wednesday June 2 5:45 PM ET
Failure in Nuclear Waste Disposal
By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - After spending nearly $500 million, the Energy Department acknowledged Wednesday that a crucial
stage in the disposal of millions of gallons of highly radioactive waste is a failure and should have been abandoned years ago.
The failed process involves attempts by scientist to find a way to separate the most highly radioactive material from less
radioactive liquids in 35 million gallons of waste now being stored in drums at the Savannah nuclear weapons facility in South
Carolina.
Scientists found that the separation process, when handing such large amounts of waste, produces large amounts of explosive
benzene gas, making it too dangerous.
Last week, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson directed that the contractor for the project, a subsidiary of Westinghouse Corp.,
be replaced and that outside scientists be enlisted to help select an alternative separation technology.
Over the objections of the contractor, Westinghouse Government Services, the Energy Department quietly pulled the plug on
the waste separation project more than a year ago. Since then, a number of alternative technologies have been proposed and
will be pursued under a new contractor, officials said.
Nevertheless, the problems could add years to a $20 billion, 30-year program to dispose of more than 35 million gallons of
highly radioactive liquid wastes at Savannah River. The idea is to convert the sludge and the most radioactive materials floating
in the liquid into as many as 6,000 glass logs for eventual storage or burial.
About 650 such glass logs, using sludge waste, already have been produced at the $2 billion vitrification plant at Savannah
River. But separating cesium and other highly radioactive materials in the liquid is crucial if the overall vitrification process is to
work, officials said.
In 1983, scientists began pursuing so-called in-tank precipitation to separate the material. While it became apparent as early as
1992 that the process produced large amounts of explosive benzene gas, the technology continued to be pursued. In 1995, a
separation plant was constructed.
Ernest Moniz, undersecretary of energy and Richardson's top science adviser, said Wednesday there were ''clear warnings''
from a review panel in late 1992 or early 1993 that the technology would not work with such large amounts of waste.
''It was quite frankly mischaracterized. ... They kept looking for solutions,'' said Moniz in a telephone interview. ''They
continued to try to find engineering solutions'' instead of shifting to alternatives.
A study released Wednesday by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said the search for a
substitute method for separating the liquid could take eight to 10 years and cost from $1 billion to as much as $3.5 billion.
''Mismanagement (of the program) ... led to an extraordinary and pathetic waste of taxpayer money,'' said Rep. John Dingell,
D-Mich., who had ordered the GAO report. ''All we have to show for $500 million is a 20-year delay and the opportunity to
risk another $1 billion to make a problematic process work.''
Moniz said that since the department directed a halt in the program in January 1998, it has spent $25 million on developing a
number of alternative technologies. Among them involves using the failed technology but in much smaller batches of waste to
reduce the buildup of benzene gas.
A decision on what technology to pursue will be made by this fall.
Moniz said the waste separation problems could delay the overall vitrification program. ''We will have some delay depending
on how fast we can get this new technology,'' he said. ''But it will allow us to go forward in the most expeditious way.''
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