Madrid objects to DOE proposal on nuclear sludge (N. Mex.)

[Whoa_Nelly]

Madrid objects to DOE proposal on nuclear sludge

By Walter Rubel/Current-Argus Santa Fe Bureau
Oct 10, 2003, 11:57 pm


SANTA FE — New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid has sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate objecting to a proposal to reclassify sludge currently considered high-level waste so that it could be stored at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

<snip>
“The Department of Energy is attempting to have Congress provide it with the discretion to place high-level nuclear waste wherever DOE chooses. That is simply unacceptable,” Madrid states in her letter. “The Waste Isolation Pilot Program Plant was never intended to house high-level waste. Congress made a promise to New Mexicans that high-level waste would not come to WIPP. Congress must live up to that promise and not grant DOE the sole discretion to reclassify high-level nuclear waste.”

<snip>
The proposal deals with sludge generated in the reprocessing of nuclear fuel at the Hanford site in Washington state.

The Energy Department has argued that it should be able to classify material based on the amount of radiation it contains and the best way to safely dispose of it. Under its proposal, some of the waste would be treated as low-level and left at Hanford, and other portions as transuranic (greater than uranium) and shipped to WIPP.
Carlsbad Mayor Bob Forrest said it is important that any waste sent to WIPP meet the guidelines laid out when the site was originally proposed.


more...
http://www.currentargus.com/artman/publish/article_2206.shtml

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. "discretion to place high-level nuclear waste wherever DOE chooses"

SCARY

I'll say it again

Ur WH has a limitless disregard for anything except $$$$$

(like THAT is news)

[burrowowl]

2. NM DUers

go to:

www.trivalleycares.org

and get info on CARD the NM group fighting this type of thing.

[Gloria]

3. Thanks for this info!!

Between WIPP and tearing up the Otera Mesa for drilling, NM is really getting it from the Bush Admin.