Change on nuclear waste eyed

The agency invited public comment yesterday on its plan to "promote a more consistent framework" for the disposal of the waste, including such low-yielding radioactive materials as cesium, strontium, cobalt, and plutonium. Currently, those materials must be stored in nuclear waste sites closely regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the EPA, and state governments.

EPA officials stressed that the waste under review contains only small amounts of radioactive material and that any loosening of rules would not affect the carefully monitored handling of lethal spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste, or tailings from the processing of uranium or thorium ore.

"The important principle is that any facility that might accept `low-activity' [nuclear] waste must provide protection of public health and the environment that is comparable to the protection provided by EPA and NRC standards for other radioactive wastes," according to an EPA statement.

After a meeting late Monday between EPA officials and environmentalists, EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman said, "No decisions have been made."

Despite those assurances, a coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, Public Citizen, and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, is strongly opposing the potential change. In a letter to EPA administrator Mike Leavitt, the coalition warned that the proposed rule "could significantly harm the environment and public health . . . if you do not act promptly to block it."