[CPEO-MEF] Save The Valley seeks hearing to challenge Army’s

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Indiana
MADISON COURIER
Save The Valley seeks hearing to challenge Army’s proposal for JPG
By: Peggy Vlerebome
Saturday, November 29, 2003

Save the Valley is asking the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
convene a hearing to consider the environmental group’s concerns about
the Army’s latest plan for Jefferson Proving Ground.

The hearing request was filed Wednesday. The deadline for interested
parties to request a hearing was Friday.

The Army wants to amend its license to use depleted uranium at JPG to a
possession-only license that would be renewable every five years for an
indefinite length of time. The Army originally had filed a
decommissioning plan to terminate the license, but changed its approach
early this year.

The Army says that because of unexploded ordnance, it is too dangerous
to send Army or contracted workers into the depleted uranium area to
collect soil and other samples for testing that would be needed as part
of the decommissioning process.

“This is an attractive rationale for the Army: It conjures up the image
of uniformed personnel stepping on UXO and being wounded and killed at a
time when such images are especially powerful in the public mind due to
the war in Iraq,” Michael Mullett, the attorney for Save the Valley,
wrote in the request. The hearing request was sent to the administrative
judges who are handling the Army’s license renewal at the Atomic Safety
and Licensing Board within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Army says that with five-year renewals, it could wait to start the
decommissioning process until such time as there is a safe way for
workers to enter the area.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=253&ArticleID=15293

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