Cal Rad Forum

July 25, 1997
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Carol Worth, 703-742-0017
DC Communications Director for Cal Rad Forum

NRC JACKSON BLASTS INTERIOR'S "FACT SHEET" ON WARD VALLEY AS ERRONEOUS
"Contains several errors and statements that may mislead the reader."

In a July 22 letter to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner (NRC) Shirley Ann Jackson accused Interior of providing erroneous, misleading information directly attributable to the Ward Valley opponent group, Committee to Bridge the Gap. The NRC is focussed on protection of public health and safety and oversees the radiological helath and safety program of the California Department of Health Services (DHS). The NRC has said that DHS has a highly effective program for managing low-leve l waste and the license for the Ward Valley facility was issued in conformance with NRC regulations and policy.

Referring to a "Fact Sheet" distributed at a press conference held by Interior Deputy Secretary John Garamendi, Jackson stated that "This Fact Sheet contains several errors and statements that may mislead the reader...NRC is concerned that some of the subjective information of the document is characterized as factual."

Particularly upsetting to Jackson is the assertion that the table identifying the sources and amounts of radioactive waste that is projected to go to the Ward Valley facility is erroneously attributed to NRC, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Ecology, the Southwestern Compact, and the Ward Valley EIS. "Raw data from the sources quoted appear to have been interpreted based on uncertain assumptions about future activities of generators to produce the figures in the table." Those figures, Jackson noted, "are identical to those in a March 1994 Committee to Bridge the Gap report."
She also criticized the biomedical implications in the fact sheet. "The issue of medical uses of radioisotopes and how they have been affected by the Ward Valley process is far less clear than the Fact Sheet portrays." The National Academy of Sciences Board on Radiation Effects Research has prepared a study Prospectus, "The Impact of U.S. Low-Level radioactive Waste Management Policy on Biomedical Research," that would "Evaluate the effects of higher disposal costs and on-site storage on the current and future activities of biomedical research, including the effects of state non-compliance (with the LLRWPAA of 1985) on institutions conducting biological and biomedical research and on hospitals where radioisotopes are crucial for the diagnosis and treatment of disease."

Finally, Jackson stressed that no NRC news is not necessarily good news for DOI. In the absence of any formal arrangement with DOI for NRC comment or review on the accuracy or even awareness of DOI documents, implied NRC approval is inappropriate. "The absence of NRC comments does not imply an NRC judgement with respect to the technical accuracy or completeness of such documents," Jackson wrote. Interior, which lacks expertise in this issue, has been critized for not seeking advice from the NRC.

Formal NRC points of contention on Interior "Fact Sheets" include:

Projection of LLW to be sent to Ward Valley over its 30-year life as attributed to NRC but was from a March 1994 Committee to Bridge the Gap report based on unidentified assumptions

Incomplete evidence of the impact of no disposal facility to medical generators Does not address how medical research is affected by disposal and storage cost increases
Is unclear on how the issue of medical uses of radioisotopes is affected by Ward Valley process

Characterizes the NRC definition of LLW as "unfortunate and misleading" as it includes both long-lived and short-lived radionuclides. NRC notes this is a Federal law definition.

"The Fact Sheet focuses on the half-life of radionuclides, but fails to discuss risk to the public from the effects of ionizing radiation and how they are affected by the half-life of radionucleds. Public health and safety is measured in terms of risk, not half-life.".

Introduces and does not define "hazardous life" of a radioactive substance as "10-20 times its half-life."