The Nuclear Regulatory Commission quietly proposed, in the midst of the pandemic, to deregulate virtually all radioactive waste other than irradiated nuclear fuel, and allow it to be disposed of in regular municipal garbage dumps designed for rotting cabbages, not plutonium. We fought this hard, working with sister organizations, and, remarkably, won. The NRC withdrew the proposal in the face of overwhelming opposition.
Similarly, in the last days of the Trump Administration, the EPA Administrator issued a letter essentially overturning a longstanding regulation forbidding the use of radioactive waste from phosphate mining to be used to construct roads. Such wastes contain high levels of radium and other radioisotopes. We provided the technical analysis, working with the Center for Biological Diversity and others, that successfully got this decision reversed a few months ago.
We also played a major role in a recent CNN Español documentary disclosing that for years radioactive “reject” rock from phosphate mining had been used in parks, playgrounds, and driveways in Florida despite high radiation readings.
Dan Hirsch was asked by a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to make a presentation on the long history of the Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Energy suppressing radiation studies that showed harm to workers and the public. His presentation, available on the CBG website, focused on grossly non-protective standards for “allowable” radiation.
We also helped disclose problems with nuclear waste storage at Los Alamos, which had mixed radioactivity with reactive chemicals creating an explosion risk so great they believe they can’t move the waste. Indeed, radioactive waste from Los Alamos had blown up at the Waste Isolation Pilot Project because—if you can believe this—they had added kitty litter to the waste to absorb liquids, which when combined with other chemicals, exploded.
We continue to work in opposition to proposals for “Centralized Interim Storage” of the nation’s high level nuclear waste in communities of color in Texas or New Mexico. We have instituted a major new CBG project to propose a technically defensible path forward for a new siting process for permanent waste repositories. The irradiated fuel rods are degrading, the nuclear waste is dangerous for immense periods of time. There is a responsibility to future generations to get this right.