EIS-0113_Section_9 - Hanford Site

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M
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RECEIVED DOERL
JUL 1 d 1986
2.2.1
2.2.7
In framing a stringent cleanup plan, He seek a commitment
from the department:
o To stop adding to the burden already borne by the
Columbia River and the soil from 40 years of highlevel
defense waste disposal.
o To operate a defense waste management plan in
compliance with the same federal standard. that
G govern private sector waste management practices.
o To prevent the defense waste cleanup plan from
disappearing into the bureaucracy after these
2.2.9 hearings and to provide a tangible FY88 budget
commitment to cleanup, not further containment, of
high-level wastes.
Specific comments on how the department should meet its
commitment follow.
RECEIVED DOE-RL
JUL 14 1986
WM DIVISION
1. TO STOP ADDING. TO THE BURDEN ALREADY BORNE BY THE WM DIVISION
COLOMBIA RIVER AND TO THE SOIL FROM 40 YEARS OF BIGH- t041,
.LEVEL DEFENSE WASTE DISPOSAL
No "as-is^ snzfece disposal of high-level waste at alndge 3.3.4.1
should be allowed. ..Toward that end, the department most
atop using an arbitrary definition of.high-level military
waste. It fosters . public mistrust when the department
defines high-level. military waste according to the proaess
it comes from rather than using EPA's definition based on
concentrations, or same. other objective criterion, such as
energy emitted per gram. The Nuclear. Waste Policy Act
mandate for deep geologic disposal of all conmercial high-
level waste (HLW) mu at apply equally to defense waste.
Therefore, the only cleanup vptiam consistent with the
.intent Of Congress is the cleanup and deep geologic disposal
of all military high-level wastes and sludges now in nearsurface
tanks and in trenches.
To consider military high-level waste any differently in
2.2.7
terms Of risk than commercial high-level. waste would be the 22 . . 7
height of incvnsistancy. Where is the wisdom in spending
billions of dollars to. build .permanent repository some
3000 feet underground, while leaving equally hazardous
military waste in tanks and trenches a .tone's throw from
the Columbia River.
L L
Reliance on grouting (mixing waste with concrete) of highlevel
wastes followed by disposal in shallow burial pits is
3.1.8.1
of questionable long-term protection of public health and
the environment. The
oussnSavannah River Plant
aste management plan final EIS estimates grouting will
release into the soil 30 times morn plutonium 238, 20 mil-.
lion times more iodine 129, and 6 million times more technation
99 than all planned routine discharges from Savannah
River's two reprocessing facilities. from 1954 to 1976.-
G.005 2
G.005 3