Critics Attack Agency
Yucca Mountain Radiation Exposure Limits
October 11, 2005 — By Erica Werner, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — U.S. scientists and
environmentalists said Monday that radiation limits proposed for the
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump beneath a volcanic ridge 90 miles (144
kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas aren't strict enough to protect the
public.
The dump's opening date has been repeatedly delayed and is now expected
in 2012.
"This rule is a transparent attempt to accommodate the industry," Arjun
Makhijani, a nuclear physicist who has been critical of the Yucca
project, told reporters on a conference call a day ahead of an
Environmental Protection Agency hearing on draft regulations.
"In the proposed EPA rule, every norm of radiation protection that has
been established for the general public since the late 1950s ... is to
be thrown overboard," Makhijani said.
The EPA in August proposed limiting exposure near the planned dump to 15
millirems a year for 10,000 years into the future, then increasing the
allowable level to 350 millirems a year for up to 1 million years.
That higher level is more than three times what is allowed from nuclear
facilities today by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A standard chest
X-ray is about 10 millirems.
The 350 millirem level is "an extremely unacceptable risk," said Dr.
Robert M. Gould, chairman of Physicians for Social Responsibility's
security committee. He said that annual exposure to that level of
radiation over a lifetime would carry a one in 36 chance for someone to
develop cancer.
EPA spokesman John Millett emphasized that the rule is a draft and a
final standard won't be issued until after the public comment period
ends Nov. 21. Tuesday's meeting at EPA headquarters is the agency's
fifth and final public hearing on the rule; the four earlier hearings
were in Nevada.
Source: Associated Press |