THE DEMOCRATIC
process itself may very well be one casualty of the nuclear industry's fight to
open a proposed nuclear waste dump in Ward Valley. A confidential memo obtained
by Assemblyman Tom Hayden's office reveals that the industry has created a
sophisticated lobbying campaign designed to bypass the legislative process and
public review and persuade Gov. Wilson to approve the dump by executive
action.
The industry's "strategic communications plan," which was
prepared by Winner/Wagner & Assocates, a high-powered Los Angeles-based
public relations firm under contract to the California Radioactive Materials
Forum, recommends that the nuclear industry lobby the governor to override a
key state review board, the state lands commission. Two of the three members of
that commission, Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy and State Controller Gray Davis, have
blocked the dump plan out of serious concerns about issues of safety and
taxpayer liability.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the industry
plan involves employing Craig Fuller, former chief of staff for President Bush,
to bring direct personal pressure to bear upon Gov. Wilson to approve the dump
by executive action. California could then become host to much of the rest of
the nation's radioactive waste, because federal legislation gives the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission the power to direct waste from any region to an open dump
under "emergency access provisions."
Currently no other states are as
close to opening a dump as California is, and opponents believe that if
approved, Ward Valley would become the main nuclear dumping ground for the
entire nation.
The plan calls for burial of so-called "low-level"
radioactive waste (including uranium and plutonium) in shallow unlined trenches
at Ward Valley. The site would also become the final resting |
place for the
dismantled, decommissioned Rancho Seco, San Onofre and Diablo Canyon nuclear
power plants when those reactors become too "hot" to operate. The dump site is
located 13 miles from the Colorado River and right above an aquifer the size of
Lake Tahoe. Dump opponents fear widespread contamination of the Colorado River
by migrating radioactive materials such as tritium and plutonium.
The
nuclear industry regularly attempts to mislead the public by suggesting that
the dump is needed for waste generated for medical treatment But the facts
reveal that most hospitals store their own relatively short-lived wastes
on-site and do not use low-level waste dumps at all.
Meanwhile the
California Department of Health Services is pushing for the, approval of the
dump contractor, US Ecology, which has left a trail of leaking dumps and
litigation across the nation. Federal law gives the states (read taxpayers)
liability for the waste including dump closure costs, clean-up costs and
accidents. Nuclear dumps have been stopped in 12 other states due to public
outcry. The proposed Ward Valley dump is a bad solution to a bad problem. Safer
and more expensive methods of radioactive waste containment include
above-ground, monitored, retrievable storage facilities. Radioactive waste
containment costs should be the responsibility of the waste producers, not the
taxpayer.
An informed public must begin to debate the problems
associated with the production of radioactive wastes from the generation of
nuclear power. There is an immediate need to put tremendous resources toward
finding adequate technologies for the safe storage and containment of the
nation's existing mountain of radioactive waste. If the governor decides to
site the dump through executive order he will leave Californians with a legacy
of astronomical cleanup costs, contaminated water and increased risk of
environmentally induced cancer. Phillip M. Klasky
is a free-lance writer and evironmental activist |