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Ruling Clears Way for Depleted Uranium
Anti-nuclear groups say waste doesn't belong in Utah; EnergySolutions applauds panel's decision.
Depleted uranium is not your ordinary radioactive waste.
In this May 17, 2006, file photo Herbert Reed, 52, a veteran of Iraq, shows the medicines he takes everyday for pain at his home in Columbia, S.C. Reed was exposed to radioactive depleted uranium while serving a few months with the 442nd Military Police out of New York. A new U.S. congressional report, prepared for a hearing on Thursday, March 12, 2009, says officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a branch of the Health and Human Services department charged with protecting the public near toxic pollution sites, 'deny, delay, minimize, trivialize or ignore legitimate health concerns.' (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain, File) Most hot waste gets less hazardous over time, like most of the stuff buried at EnergySolutions Inc.'s disposal site in Tooele County
But not DU, as it's called. The uranium enrichment by-product becomes more hazardous as it decays. And that's the reason the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's latest decision on depleted uranium is causing such a controversy.
On Wednesday, the commission voted 3-to-1 to regulate DU as Class A low-level waste. And, in doing so, it made up to 1.4 million tons of DU potentially eligible to go to EnergySolutions' Utah site.
While the Salt Lake City nuclear company is applauding the decision, critics say the NRC has put industry's interests before people. And the commissioner who cast the "no" vote said DU is "a unique challenge" that deserves its own category.
Instead, the NRC ruling directs staff to suggest any extra precautions -- like a heavier radon barrier or deeper burial -- needed before DU gets buried at any disposal site.
"I'm hopeful in the end that we will come up with what a safe disposal methodology for this material would be," said Commissioner Gregory B. Jaczko, who's been pushing NRC to be clearer and more open about radioactive waste.
For EnergySolutions, the ruling clears the way for lots more of a waste stream it's already been taking on a much smaller scale. It also solves a problem for the blossoming uranium enrichment industry, which would have had no disposal options if NRC had labeled DU differently, because hotter waste is not permitted in Utah.
Said company spokesman Mark Walker: "We appreciate the NRC's ruling which is based on sound science that depleted uranium is Class A waste."
But Christopher Thomas, policy director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah said DU is a radioactive threat that grows for hundreds and thousands of years.
"Ultimately, it'd be too hot for Utah to handle," he said. "The NRC is tearing a hole in the waste classification system that is supposed to protect us. Their decision puts the interests of EnergySolutions and the nuclear industry ahead of the health and safety of Utah."
Anti-nuclear groups have said DU is 40 times more radioactive than typical Class A waste and is four times more hazardous than some types of plutonium. They said it needs to be secure for thousands of years -- far longer than the 100-year hazard limit for Class A waste.
Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, praised Jaczko and attacked the scientific integrity of NRC's ruling.
"The NRC seems eager to please the burgeoning uranium enrichment industry," said Makhijani, "but it has compromised sound science and public health protection of future generations."
Dane Finerfrock, director of Utah's Division of Radiation Control, noted one key factor for the state will be how long the NRC's hazard limits will apply. For instance, a certain concentration of DU might not be dangerous in 100 years or 1,000 years but might be far more hazardous in 10,000 years from now.
Whatever NRC decides, safety standards will have to be met, he said. "We'll do exactly what the rule requires us to do."
19 Comments so far
Show AllUgh. If they think it's so safe, why don't we find a way to insert it into their bodies? Iraqis shouldn't have all the fun.
Or cast into a giant shape of the "Shoe" for display at the G. W. Bush Library.
Sioux Rose
I see why you chose a shoe, but to do such a display justice, the piece should be named, "Sure Stepped Into It," and a Bush loyal servant should add a daily dose of doggy doo doo to the display for authenticity value. As for the word "It" one could substitute any number of testaments to the SHIT this excuse-for-a-never-elected president put US through, all viable.
It's not just the Iraqis who are having such fun dying from depleated uranium. This hazardous material in in our munitions and our military forces are spreading it all over the world. Of course, our troops are effected too--but hey!! It is cheap way for the nuclear 'industry' to get rid of their toxic waste. It saves them money!! That's good for profits!!! What's matter with this? Aren't you a good 'merican?
Cat drowned after repeately being thrown into a pond. The thrower claimed they had renamed the cat to that of duck and so it then should have been able to float since it was now a duck. Local officials are studing the case and no charges were made against the thrower.
Same type of story as the DU one above...ya think or don'tcha?
Holdovers from the Bush Administration...
-30-
Or maybe from the first Bush. I have no idea what the overturn rate at the NRC is.
Please eat sea vegetables to detox radiation and heavy metals. We are all exposed to some degree to toxins in our environments. Being exposed to depleted uranium is an enormous dose of radiation, but it is not a death sentence nor a reason to turn to pharmaceuticals. Please turn to the plants, they are very healing. I would STRONGLY recommend that anyone experiencing poisoning or any serious health challenge go to a place like Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida or The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Arizona. These amazing people saved my life several years ago - I was diagnosed with a fast growing form of lymphoma. Within a month of following the diet recommendations (lots of raw food - sprouts and veggies, sea veggies, cucumber and celery juice, lots of wheatgrass juice), the exercise recommendations (one hour daily, no matter what -and at the time my spleen was not recycling my blood cells, but eating them, so exercise was very difficult, but I did it), daily meditation and time in nature, I was on my way to great health. It was a challenging time in my life, but I am glad that I experienced it. Every one of us is capable of healing in many ways. I just don't see much healing coming out of the pharmaceutical companies. I do see healing happening with nutrition, prayer and energy healing. I am currently involved in energy healing and aromatherapy which are healing many, many people. (www.emofree.com, www.healingtouch.net www.wisdomoftheearth.com - patchouli essential oil will detox the liver and take heavy metals out of the body, so will ledum groenlandicum, and many other essential oils. essential oils can also help you become and stay alkaline - lime essential oil - a few drops in a glass of water, or applied to the bottoms of your feet - also happens to be a powerful anti-depressent). Health and happiness to all.
Sioux Rose
CYNTHIA: Thank you for your fascinating post. I have seen "incurable ailments" healed utilizing methodologies akin to those you mentioned.
The sad part is that we NEED to find these remedies, that the protectors of this nation instead have become sold-out enablers of peddlars in toxic wares of all sorts, shapes, and sizes with compromised public health the common denominator.
Just as the occupation is termed a war, and so much is framed in jargon that makes its truth unclear, so, too, is the labeling of DU as not ultimately hazardous another disingenuous act of subterfuge and sabotage. The nation's interests have been utterly undermined, and it's the same few at the helm bargaining for more bounty for their masters.
DU: The NEW and improved Agent Orange.
up to 1.4 million tons of DU can potentially kill everyone.
Can we finally admit that the use of DU in the weapons used on the Iraqis and the Afghans and the Palestinians is both a war crime and a crime against humanity. The US has become the greatest terrorist state on the planet and they have the terrorist state of Israel as their ally in these diabolical criminal actions against humanity and I may speculate, against God and Nature! Divest, Sanction and Boycott these terrorist states!!
Members of the NRC might want to take a tour of the hospitals in Iraq, where the cancer rate has gone up 600% since before the war(s)there. We also have hundreds of photos of horrendous birth defects which were not seen by doctors before. Some of them are children of US Iraqi veterans. Oh well, Utah doesn't have many people..........
"blossoming uranium enrichment industry,"??
Try the "spreading plague of uranium enrichment industry".
The only enrichment we can expect is the industry itself until it declares bankrupcy and hands the problem of nuke waste contamination and increasing cancer forever over to the government and the taxpayers to handle.
I guess it's up to the Utah Mormons to put together a united voting bloc to stop DU in their state. If they can do it for gay marriage in California, they can certainly do it for a much more important issue. This is obviously a regulator capture on the part of the industry, as there is tons of hard evidence that DU simply kills people.
Sure beats the usual disposal method..forming it into bullets and blasting them all over the Middle East.
this is Utah's Karma for ending gay marriage in California.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
According to this mode of thinking, it is important for the department officials and their corporate payers to run off now with the hot profits, which they surely need now in the very short term, because this sort of thinking implies the human race will not be around for more than short term, to suffer later on from the hot radiation. A self-fulfilling prophesy.
I recall reading that there was even an attempt to use DU in metal that would have been used for baby carriages. Gives 'MIC' a whole new level of meaning doesn't it? - Then again, crazies have been running the MIC (military industrial complex) for decades now.
That's kinda funny in another way too. DU is used as one of the armor layers in the newer M1 tanks. RPG proof baby carriages maybe?