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New Mexico Seeks Delay in Shipments of Radioactive Nuclear Waste

Reported by Melissa Lovin

     Officials of the state of New Mexico asked a federal judge Friday to block shipments of radioactive nuclear waste to an underground site in their state.  The judge agreed to halt plans for movement of the waste until a ruling can be made.  State officials argue that a permit is required to ship any radioactive waste into their state.  The Energy Department was preparing to begin shipments of the "transuranic" radioactive waste to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

      Four environmental groups joined the state in asking U.S. District Judge John Garrett Penn to issue and injunction for waste shipments to the WIPP until the state permit board could evaluate the case.  "If you can bring in the waste before the permit, we might as well not have a permitting process," state's deputy attorney general Lindsay Lovejoy agrued to the judge.  His contention was that to allow shipments now would disrupt the permit process.  

    Justice Department attorneys maintained that the shipment of the 36 drums from New Mexico's own Los Alamos National Laboratory is exempt from the permitting process because, although radioactive, the material does not contain any toxic chemicals covered by the state hazardous waste law.   They argued further, that the site has been cleared for waste shipments by the Environmental Protection Agency.

     Both sides agreed that no waste would be moved for a minimum of 11 days during which time Judge Penn indicated that he would make a ruling whether or not the injunction would be issued. Wendy Blake, Justice Department attorney, argued that the WIPP site is "legally opened and determined to be safe" and therefore, there should be no reason to block the shipments.  

     In the meantime, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson stated while testifying before a congressional committee Friday that the administration remains opposed to construction of an interim storage facility for high-level nuclear spent fuel in Nevada.  The spent fuel remains at commercial nuclear power plants across the country and ranges in the thousands of tons.  Richardson contends that an interim storage site would reduce the incentive to begin construction of a permanant site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.  Geologists there are currently trying to determine if the site is suitable for long-term burial.  

    Predominantly spent nuclear reactor fuel, this high-level nuclear waste differs from the transuranic waste destined for WIPP,  which is waste from federal weapons production such as clothing, rags, tools and other contaminated materials.  

     Technically, the proposed injunction would apply only to the Los Alamos shipments; however, the implications are far-reaching.  The Energy Departments plans to ship wastes from its facility in Idaho are likely to be affected which, under an agreement with the state of Idaho, are scheduled to begin by April 30. 

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