Anti-Nuclear Groups Sue To Halt Waste Repository Doe Plan Would Ship Ineel Waste To New Mexico As Early As June
An anti-nuclear coalition asked a federal court Friday to jail Energy Secretary Federico Pena for contempt and to halt his plans to open a New Mexico nuclear repository set to take waste from Idaho.
No sooner had the Department of Energy published plans Friday for radioactive storage at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant than the coalition of 39 groups asked U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin in Washington, D.C., to find Pena and DOE in contempt.
Sporkin had ordered a thorough DOE analysis of America’s nuclear weapons cleanup program.
The coalition, including New Mexico’s Los Alamos Study Group, alleged “neglect, failure and willful refusal to comply with and obey” Sporkin’s order.
Their motion seeks imprisonment for Pena and two deputies until DOE produces a binding schedule for preparing and issuing an environmental impact statement on the cleanup plan.
“Pena should realize that Energy is not a caretaker position,” Los Alamos Study Group director Greg Mello said. “He has got to find out what is going on in his agency and take charge of it, or he should find a safer place to sit.”
There is no chance Pena will be sent to prison, said Marc Johnston, deputy DOE general counsel.
“This motion to have the department held in contempt is absolutely without merit. … We will contest this vigorously,” Johnston said.
The petition asks Sporkin to reject DOE decisions published Friday in the Federal Register regarding WIPP, the underground repository near Carlsbad, N.M., that is due to open in May.
That publication says DOE has decided to store plutonium-contaminated “transuranic” waste at WIPP and has set forth waste-acceptance criteria - preparations required for moving waste to WIPP.
DOE Carlsbad project manager George Dials said the decision follows the most recent environmental impact study on WIPP.
Transuranic waste includes material such as gloves, tools and protective clothing worn by nuclear workers. It’s regarded as low- to moderate-level radioactive waste.
Besides DOE approval, WIPP still needs Environmental Protection Agency certification. Dials said that’s expected by April 30, and waste could then begin moving after a 30-day waiting period.
Waste would come from 15 sites around the country.
The first waste to arrive likely would come from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Other early shipments are expected from Colorado and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.