Anti-WIPP article lacks critical thinking

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Marylia Kelley's recent post of the "Waste Isolation Pilot Plant: The
Two Percent 'Solution'" article promotes untruths and overall lacks
critical thinking.  In the past, posts from Marylia's group have called
for cleanups of sites at LLNL, air filters at the Pu facility, a local
park--where do they think the debris and used workers' protective
equipment are going to be disposed?

Here in Oak Ridge, transuranic (TRU) waste is scattered about the Oak
Ridge National Lab complex in a variety of forms, including sludges in
decaying tanks and lines, and wastes buried in the ground, in many cases
in contact with the groundwater.  Currently, a program is underway to
treat and contain this waste, with the initial shipments to WIPP
scheduled for 2003.  WIPP is demonstrably safer for disposal of this
material than the numerous locations across the US where TRU waste is
haphazardly stored in close proximity to population centers.  This
includes Rocky Flats, where drums of TRU waste are stored above ground
under tents.

A bigger issue is the hundreds of millions of dollars that annually are
spent to oversee this waste in these inappropriate locations.  This is
money that otherwise could be spent to clean up contaminated lands with
significant potential for exposure to workers or that might allow
contaminants to migrate to areas accessible to the public.  Why delay
this further?  The truth is that budgets are getting smaller, not
larger, so that appropriate actions on waste management need to be done
today.

The article also repeats many of the assertions that simply don't hold
up under careful scrutiny:

"WIPP will leak." --This is not likely.  The salt will flow plastically
to encase the drums and fill in the excavated chambers.  There are no
free liquids allowed in the drums.  The discussion of the geology of the
WIPP site ignores the fact that these salt domes are highly stable and
aren't subject to the unlikely scenarios postulated.  Moreover, nearby
drilling and injection operations will be forbidden.

"Much of the waste slated for WIPP is contaminated with plutonium 239,
which has a radioactive half-life of over 24,000 years." --Big deal. 
There are many more toxic elements that will NEVER decay away disposed
by industries daily in much less secure disposal sites.

"DOE plans to bring 40,000 truck loads of transuranic waste to WIPP over
the next 30 years....DOE estimates these shipments will result in 6
deaths and 48 injuries from accidents and that 3 people will die from
radiation exposure during 'accident free' shipments." --All trucking has
fatal accident rates--the nuclear trucking industry has far fewer than
average. The TRU shipping containers are extremely over-designed and
tested, with zero liklihood of failure in a typical road accident. 
Moreover, the $20 million per year that New Mexico is receiving for
accepting WIPP, and which is being applied to highway upgrades, will
prevent many more deaths from traffic accidents than the small number of
fatalities estimated for the TRU waste shipping campaign.

I have never seen protesters complaining about a bridge or building
being constructed when the construction industry knows that X number of
workers will die.  I have never seen protests about the prevalence of
single-walled petroleum tankers plying our highways, city streets, and
neighborhoods--accidents involving these are demonstrably more likely to
be fatal (and environmentally harmful) than from a TRU-bearing truck. 
So what is the real agenda here?

"WIPP is part of the DOE's nuclear waste "shell game," a dangerous
enterprise that puts deadly wastes on our highways, moving them around
the
country and substituting "out of sight - out of mind" for a sound
policy." --This statement is inflammatory rhetoric.  In truth, WIPP is
the best possible policy, considering the budgetary constraints and the
current state of TRU-waste storage and buildings/lands contaminated with
TRU-waste in many of our communities.

"Moreover, WIPP will not come close to solving the country's nuclear
waste problems, not by any standard of measurement.  WIPP is designed to
handle less than 2% of the existing volume of nuclear bomb-generated
radioactive wastes. Even if one calculates the transuranic wastes alone,
WIPP is proposed for only about one-third of DOE's existing TRU waste."
--WIPP is by law and by design only intended to handle TRU waste.  Yes,
we need more capacity.  We also need appropriate sites opened to dispose
of the nation's low-level and high-level radioactive wastes.  Oak Ridge
and the other DOE sites want this out of their communities to prevent
further discharges to their groundwater and their rivers.

While the ANA--"anti-nuclear anything"--crowd is causing delaying
tactics for real-life rational solutions, the rest of us are fighting to
get these wastes cleaned up and moved out.  So if you won't support us,
at least get out of our way, and let us really do some good for the
environment we live in.  And if you really are "working for peace,
justice and a healthy environment" then write to Secretary Richardson
and ask him to open WIPP as soon as possible to all the sites needing to
dispose of TRU wastes.
-- 
==================================================
Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 South Illinois Avenue, Suite 208
Oak Ridge, Tennessee  37830
Phone (423) 483-1333; Fax (423) 482-