[CPEO-MEF] Report on Idaho Lab Pollution

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

NEWS RELEASE FROM IEER

RADIOACTIVE AND CHEMICAL POLLUTION FROM NUCLEAR
WASTE DUMPING ENDANGERS SNAKE RIVER PLAIN AQUIFER,
LARGEST AQUIFER IN WESTERN U.S.

More than one ton of plutonium is in shallow dumps

Energy Department "Clean-up" Program Plagued by Poor Priorities, Inaction

Washington, D.C., October 9, 2001: Nuclear waste dumped at the Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) is polluting
the Snake River Plain aquifer, the primary source of drinking water for
200,000 people, according to a new report.  Poison in the Vadose Zone:
An examination of the threats to the Snake River Plain aquifer from the
Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, by the
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), warns that this
important water resource faces further contamination from the migration
of long-lived radionuclides and hazardous chemicals from nuclear weapons
production wastes buried at the site.  The Snake River Plain aquifer is
the largest unified aquifer in the western United States and the most
important underground water resource in the northwestern U.S.  Poison in
the Vadose Zone is the first report to comprehensively compile and
analyze the available data on the threat posed by plutonium and other
transuranic materials to the Snake River Plain aquifer.

"For fifty years, nuclear weapons production has resulted in large
quantities of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste being injected
directly into the aquifer, discharged into surface ponds, or dumped into
shallow pits and trenches," said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, principal author
of the report and president of IEER. "These contaminants pose a serious
threat to the lifeblood of the region, the Snake River Plain aquifer."

According to the report, official US government data indicate that more
than one metric ton of plutonium, packaged in nothing more than
cardboard boxes, wooden boxes, or 55 gallon drums, was dumped into
shallow trenches on the site in the 1950s and 1960s.  Rain, snow, and
occasional flooding of the trenches have already caused migration of
some radioactive and hazardous materials towards, and in some cases
into, the aquifer.  Evidence has existed for more than 25 years that
these long-lived radionuclides are migrating through the vadose zone to
the aquifer much faster than anticipated.

"Sound scientific work indicating threats to the Snake River Plain
aquifer has long been ignored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),"
stated Michele Boyd, co-author of the report and IEER's global outreach
coordinator.  "Plutonium and americium have been detected in the vadose
zone, which is the unsaturated area between the ground surface and the
aquifer, and in the aquifer since the 1970s.  Plutonium is moving
through the vadose zone to the aquifer thousands of times faster than
assumed by a wait-and-see policy that dominates DOE's approach to
clean-up of these dumps.”

While the threat to the Snake River Plain aquifer from the buried wastes
increases, the DOE has focused on transporting "stored" transuranic
wastes, which are kept in relatively secure conditions indoors at INEEL,
to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.

"Insufficient resources are being devoted to cleaning up of the buried
transuranic wastes at INEEL," said Gary Richardson, Executive Director
of the Snake River Alliance, a nuclear watchdog group of INEEL.  "The
DOE is essentially playing a shell game by moving wastes from INEEL to
WIPP so that more waste can be shipped to INEEL.  The DOE's
Environmental Management Program has wasted enormous sums of money on
poorly designed projects for managing buried wastes.  Meanwhile, the DOE
is continuing to dump wastes into unlined pits and trenches.  A culture
of denial seems deeply embedded in the DOE with regard to the threat
posed by buried wastes."

Paul Schwartz, Director for Water Policy of Clean Water Action, in
welcoming the report said, “Activists and policy-makers should pay far
more attention to the threat posed to the purity of critical water
supplies in the United States by past radioactive dumping.  Clean Water
Action is certainly going to do so.  There is no room for complacency
when it comes to plutonium and americium.”

The DOE buried more plutonium containing waste at INEEL than at any
other nuclear weapons site. Direct injection of radioactive and
hazardous substances into the Snake River Plain aquifer and dumping of
wastes into percolation ponds resulted in plumes of pollutants like
strontium-90, iodine-129, and TCE in the aquifer.  Some areas under the
site are contaminated at levels far above the Safe Drinking Water
standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  While these
standards do not apply to the water under INEEL, they do indicate the
severity of the problem of water pollution due to past waste dumping and
the need for clean-up.

"The combined threat from the radioactive and hazardous chemicals in the
buried wastes is enormous," continued Beatrice Brailsford of the Snake
River Alliance.  "Severe contamination of the Snake River Plain aquifer
would have serious consequences for the health of the people and economy
of Idaho.  The Snake River Plain aquifer is the only source of drinking
water for 200,000 people in southern Idaho and a major source of
irrigation water for regional crops and fisheries.  The produce grown in
Idaho is eaten throughout the United States and in many other countries,
including Japan, Canada, and Mexico.  Idaho’s trout farms, which rely on
the groundwater, produce 75 percent of the commercial rainbow trout
eaten in the U.S."

The report recommends that: 
* buried wastes be recovered from the dumps and processed in order to
stabilize them for storage,  
* all shallow land burial of radioactive wastes be stopped,  
* the vadose zone be remediated to the extent possible, and 
* a more vigorous groundwater monitoring program be implemented.

"This will not be a simple project and will need to be carried out
carefully, with due regard for worker safety," said Dr. Makhijani. "But
it is a project that is essential for protecting the health of the Snake
River Plain aquifer and also for security.  If site control is lost, the
dumps would be a potential nuclear weapons mine since they contain more
than 200 nuclear bombs worth of plutonium.”

For further information, contact: 

Arjun Makhijani               (301) 270-5500  
Beatrice Brailsford    (208) 234-4782  
Bob Schaeffer                 (941) 395-6773

Copies of the full report are available upon request. Portions of the
report are available on-line: http://www.ieer.org/reports/poison/toc.html

                                       --30--

Lisa Ledwidge 
Outreach Coordinator and Editor, Science for Democratic Action 
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) 
2104 Stevens Ave. South |  Minneapolis, MN 55404  USA 
phone:  (612) 879-7517  |  fax:  (612) 879-7518 
ieer@ieer.org  |  http://www.ieer.org

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