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April 18, 2012

The Que Bue blog
San Antonio Current

State Representative Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, would love to spill the contents of a top-secret pile of documents he got from the state. But he can’t. Stemming from a state open records request he filed in 2009, Burnam now says he has documents from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that prove serious public health and safety risks associated with the West Texas Waste Control Specialists radioactive waste dump built and owned by Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons. After a two-year court battle, Burnam says a court ordered the documents released to his office as a "legislative privilege," but that he was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement with the TCEQ not to reveal the contents. Burnam’s short on details, saying only that the documents show the presence of groundwater inside the facility’s 100-foot buffer zone, and that they discuss the margin of safety in the event of groundwater contamination along with discussions of possible risk to the public of radiation exposure.

"Until we know the source of this water, the likelihood of groundwater contamination, and the risk to the public, it’s simply irresponsible to open this site," Burnam said in a statement.

WCS is waiting for the final word from TCEQ to open up its Andrews County radwaste site to much of the nation, a decision Burnam says could come as soon as this week. Burnam insists the public should know what he knows before WCS gets the green light. On Monday Burnam sent off two letters, one to AG Greg Abbott asking he clarify whether the "top secret" information is really confidential under state law, and another to TCEQ Executive Director Mark Vickery, urging him not to give the dump final approval. "I don’t think the statutory criteria for keeping these documents secret have been met, especially when you consider the very serious public health and safety implications involved," Burnam said.

WCS has been clear on its intent to make its Andrews County facility a burial site for radioactive waste from across the county. As detailed in a Bloomberg piece early this month, Simmons has even been greasing the political gears hoping to score a rule change from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand the definition of ""low-level radioactive waste" so his site can bury waste like depleted uranium.

Critics of WCS’ plan have insisted the dump sits dangerously close to the Ogallala Aquifer (some contend on top of the aquifer, though the company disputes it), the nation’s largest aquifer stretching all the way to South Dakota. If this is starting to ring a bell, it should. Former TCEQ geologists and engineers told their bosses in 2007 that WCS’ radwaste license shouldn’t be approved partly because of concerns over contaminating the nearby water table. They resigned in protest when the TCEQ forged ahead, ignoring their concerns — then the former TCEQ director who issued WCS’ licenses, Glenn Shankle, left to lobby for the company. "Staff professionals at TCEQ have resigned over the licensing of this site — experts quit their jobs because they do not agree that the site is safe enough for radioactive waste," said Karen Hadden with the SEED Coalition in a statement Monday.

Burnam also released a non-confidential report from WCS to TCEQ showing that between November 2011 and March 2012 the company pumped more than 23,000 gallons from a monitor well inside the so-called "buffer zone."

Apr. 15, 2012

BY ANNA M. TINSLEY
atinsley(at)star-telegram.com
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Huge numbers of trucks carrying low-level radioactive waste from dozens of states will soon travel highways nationwide — including those in the Metroplex — on their way to a remote disposal site in West Texas.

Shipments from up to 36 states will head to a dump in Andrews County near the New Mexico border, owned by Dallas billionaire and generous Republican political donor Harold Simmons, despite concerns from environmentalists and others worried about potential accidents or contamination once the loads are left at the Waste Control Specialists facility.

"Texas is going to become a nuclear waste dump if everything happens under their plans," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, an opponent of the facility. "We will be the major route for nuclear waste.

"I am absolutely concerned about the transportation of the materials, about the high volume of nuclear waste traveling on our interstates through areas such as Fort Worth and Dallas," he said. "I think it’s a really bad idea to have that much nuclear waste rolling down our interstates unguarded."

The first shipments, possibly this month, will likely come from the state’s two nuclear plants, Comanche Peak near Glen Rose and the South Texas project in Matagorda County. Truckloads of contaminated waste from other states, which require a formal application process and approval, could start by summer.

Officials aren’t publicly outlining the shipment routes, although many say loads are likely to cross major highways in North Texas as dangerous materials already do.

In the past eight years, 72 incidents nationwide involving trucks carrying radioactive material on highways have caused $2.4 million in damage and one death, the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration says.

Workers at the Andrews County site say various shipments, including contaminated sludge from New York’s Hudson River in 2009, have arrived without incident.

"We have been successfully and without any incidents at all transporting this material for quite some time," said Chuck McDonald, a spokesman for Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists. "Transportation of low-level radioactive waste is highly, highly regulated, requiring specified types of containers and vehicles.

"It’s going to be addressed and is addressed by appropriate government entities."

A ‘win’ for Texas?

In the early 1980s, the federal government encouraged states to build low-level nuclear waste landfills either by forming compacts with other states or on their own. Texas and Vermont teamed up to create a compact to dispose of waste from the two states and federal sources. Last year, state lawmakers approved the Andrews County site; the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission recently agreed to let as many as 36 states ship waste there.

The Texas Compact Disposal Facility, the nation’s only commercial facility licensed to dispose of certain types of low-level waste, formally opened last year in a sparsely populated area about 350 miles west of Fort Worth. Waste Control Specialists spent millions to build and open it.

Shipments of Class A, B and C waste sent there will include medical materials and hospital equipment such as beakers, test tubes and X-ray machines, as well as items that have come in contact with radioactive material such as gloves, shoe covers, trash, rags and dirt.

Those items will be placed in steel and concrete containers that will then be placed in other steel and concrete containers built into red bed clay. When the main container is filled, the entire area will be sealed, McDonald said.

Texas shipments will be first.

"We’re going to take radioactive materials out of Texas urban centers and dispose of them in an arid, isolated location that we believe is a good location," McDonald said. "We believe it’s a win for the state of Texas."

Nebraska may be among the first of the other states. Officials with a public power district are close to a $3.1 million agreement to dispose of long-stored low-level waste such as radioactive filters.

The company has a 15-year license to collect and dispose of the material, with options to renew for two 10-year terms. State lawmakers have banned materials from foreign countries at the site.

Environmental concerns

Environmentalists have complained about the site for years, worried that the waste might contaminate groundwater.

Opponents say they believe that Simmons’ political clout prompted the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to give favorable treatment to the project, despite environmental questions, and later led the 2011 Legislature to permit limited amounts of waste from other states that were not part of the original Texas-Vermont compact.

Three staff members of the environmental agency quit in protest in 2007, saying that higher-ups ignored their concerns about possible groundwater contamination.

"We continue to have concerns about the site itself and whether or not there is enough protection … and whether there will be contamination of the water," said Karen Hadden, executive director of the statewide SEED Coalition environmental group. "Once radioactivity gets into groundwater, it’s a difficult thing to clean up and it can get into the millions and billions of dollars."

Waste Control officials have said they have responded to concerns through the licensing process and have conducted tests that show the site to be safe.

"We have taken core samples around the site so we know exactly what the geology looks like," McDonald said. "It’s not going to impact any drinking water supply in any way.

"It’s an ideal site."

SEED has asked state officials for an independent audit system to do spot-checks and random audits to make sure that safety procedures are followed, shipping procedures are accurate, and limits on volume and types of radioactive waste are met.

"We want to make sure shipments are right when they arrive — that they are the correct material, packaged properly, don’t have water in the disposal pit," Hadden said. "We want to make sure it’s put in the right place and marked properly."

Accidents happen

In February, an Arlington train derailment blocked traffic for hours. Only corn syrup was spilled, but it could have been much worse: More than a dozen train cars that did not derail were filled with dangerous chemicals including flammable crude oil, sodium hydroxide, liquid chlorine and sulfuric acid, reports said.

While the Arlington accident involved a train, and low-level radioactive shipments will be moved by truck, local emergency management officials say they are prepared for an emergency, partly because of training received for special events such as the Super Bowl.

"I-20 has been a designated radioactive shipment corridor for some time," Arlington Assistant Fire Chief Jim Self said. "We’ve had training over the years … and this is not a foreign idea to us.

"The Arlington Fire Department is prepared for any kind of radioactive-related emergency," Self said.

Local officials say they don’t know when these shipments will pass through the Metroplex.

"We will make sure our first responders are aware of the different types of materials out there," said Juan Ortiz, Fort Worth’s emergency management coordinator. "The response, planning and training is not completely new to us.

"We have a lot of the capabilities in place," he said. "But this is a challenge that most communities will have to figure out how to overcome."

In case of an accident, standard procedure is to contain spilled materials, make sure they don’t get into waterways and prevent people from coming into contact with them, officials have said.

But many communities may not be as prepared, especially small Texas towns that might lack emergency management teams or personnel trained to respond to hazardous-material emergencies, Hadden said.

"Shipments can go through any major city, any major highway, and you have no way of knowing when you see an accident if there are radioactive materials involved," Hadden said. "There has really been no analysis of the best transportation routes or of emergency preparedness."

Anna M. Tinsley, 817-390-7610

Twitter: @annatinsley

Press Release
For Immediate Release
April 16, 2012

Contact: Craig Adair
(512) 463-0740

TCEQ preparing to allow site to open despite massive water presence underground at site in violation of license terms

(Austin, Texas) ­ Today, Rep. Burnam called on the Executive Director of the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to protect public health and safety by not allowing the low-level radioactive waste disposal site in West Texas to open until key questions are answered about the presence of groundwater inside the 100 feet buffer zone around the facility.

The private company licensed to operate the facility, Waste Control Specialists (WCS), which stands to reap millions in profits in disposal fees once the site is operational, is pressing for the agency to allow the site to open even though documents show significant groundwater present at the site, confirming the worst fears of TCEQ scientists that objected to issuance of the license five years ago due to the likelihood of groundwater intrusion at the site in future years.

“It appears that serious public health and safety risks are being ignored in the interest of getting this site up and running,” Burnam said in a press conference at the State Capitol today.

“Until we know the source of this water, the likelihood of groundwater contamination, and the risk to the public, it’s simply irresponsible to open this site,” Burnam added.

If the site opens before monitoring wells inside the buffer zone are dry, WCS could violate license condition 65 which states, “In the event that saturated conditions are detected inside the buffer zone, the Licensee shall cease all waste disposal operations and notify the executive director immediately.”

“How can TCEQ let the site open if WCS would be in violation of its license on its first day of operation?” Burnam asked.

Burnam called on TCEQ to not issue the final certification letter until:

1. water is no longer present within the buffer zone,
2. the agency knows the source and extent of groundwater currently present inside the buffer zone and can demonstrate that the Ogallala Aquifer is not at risk of contamination, and
3. the Attorney General has ruled on the confidentiality of the secret internal documents.

Also today, Rep. Burnam requested a ruling by Attorney General Greg Abbott whether secret TCEQ documents about the site that he obtained through a 2009 open records request may be disclosed in the interest of public health and safety. The agency initially withheld the documents but last year was ordered to release them due to a court ruling.

“As my letter to the AG today explains, I don’t think the statutory criteria for keeping these documents secret have been met,” Burnam said, “especially when you consider the very serious public health and safety implications involved.”

The documents discuss the agency’s concerns with WCS’ license application and the risks of possible radioactive contamination of nearby groundwater tables, but Rep. Burnam is prohibited from sharing the documents with the public under a confidentiality agreement signed in September 2009 at the insistence of TCEQ.

“The public has a right to know what the scientists — whose salaries are paid by their tax dollars — thought about the adequacy of the site, the possibility of groundwater contamination, and the risks to their safety,” Burnam added. “I hope the AG will allow me to respect that right by removing the gag order.”

Related Documents:

• Representative Lon Burnam’s Press Release
  April 16, 2012
• Representative Lon Burnam’s Letter to State Attorney General
  April 16, 2012
• Representative Lon Burnam’s Letter to TCEQ
  April 16, 2012
• Compact Facility Map
• Waste Control Specialist Observations at OW-1 and OW-2 Progress at OAG-21
  March 28, 2012

March 29, 2012

Jeff McMahon, Contributor
Forbes.com

Nuclear power is no longer an economically viable source of new energy in the United States, the freshly-retired CEO of Exelon, America’s largest producer of nuclear power, said in Chicago Thursday.

And it won’t become economically viable, he said, for the forseeable future.

"Let me state unequivocably that I’ve never met a nuclear plant I didn’t like," said John Rowe, who retired 17 days ago as chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation, which operates 22 nuclear power plants, more than any other utility in the United States.

"Having said that, let me also state unequivocably that new ones don’t make any sense right now."

Speaking to about 5o people at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy,Rowe presented a series of slides comparing the economic viability of various energy portfolios, including the "King Coal" scenario favored by Republicans, the "Big Wind" scenario favored by Democrats, and a "Playing Favorites" scenario that shuffles and selects from various energy sources.

All were trumped by a portfolio that relies heavily on America’s sudden abundance of natural gas, which has flooded the market since the boom in hydraulic fracturing of shale gas. Natural gas futures dropped to a 10-year low today—$2.15 for 1,000 cubic feet—on abundant supply, the Associated Press reported.

"I’m the nuclear guy," Rowe said. "And you won’t get better results with nuclear. It just isn’t economic, and it’s not economic within a foreseeable time frame."

Nuclear power remains a favorite of the Obama Administration, particularly in the form of small and modular new reactors. But Rowe’s pessimism about nuclear power reinforces statements made by other nuclear experts since the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.

However, Rowe did not touch upon the political vulnerability of nuclear power since the Fukushima accident. His argument was economic and, he added, paints a picture that Exelon itself does not savor.

Former ComEd CEO Tom Ayers built Exelon’s reactor fleet because, Rowe said, he thought they were best for the environment. But Ayers was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease by the time the reactors broke even on their initial cost. He died in 2007.

"I’m not fond of investments that don’t pay off before I’m incapable of comprehending it," said Rowe, who took over as chairman and CEO of Exelon in 2003.

Rowe also served on the president’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

March 28, 2012

The QueQue Blog
San Antonio Current

In 1992, an earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale struck Lea County at the Texas-New Mexico border, a stone’s throw from today’s radioactive waste dump operated by Waste Control Specialists in western Andrews County. While a Eunice dispatcher reported "minor damage to structures, but nothing major," a Texaco gas plant outside Eunice, New Mexico, was knocked offline, according to an Odessa American story at the time. Earthquakes are only one of the reasons to be concerned about the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission‘s vote last week allowing Waste Control Specialists to receive radioactive trash from across the country.

The site sits uncomfortably close to the Ogallala Aquifer (some say on top of the aquifer, but the company disputes this), the nation’s largest aquifer that stretches all the way to South Dakota. It was this liquid proximity, and the multitude of application rewrites the company of Governor Perry’s million-dollar donor Harold Simmons was allowed, that led to some within the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to resign in protest.

Even after the application was finally approved, WCS was allowed to slip a key provision regarding financial assurance should things go wrong. It’s a point Karen Hadden, executive director of the SEED Coalition, brought to the TLLRWDCC meeting in a letter signed onto by a number of other groups, including Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility, Public Citizen, Environment Texas, and San Antonio’s Esperanza Peace & Justice Center and Southwest Workers Union. "Serious environmental contamination problems have occurred at many existing low-level radioactive waste facilities and clean up cost will run into billions of dollars," Hadden wrote. Yet strangely, the TCEQ allowed WCS to exchange stock in a sister corporation, Titanium Metals, in exchange for financial assurance for its first five years of operations. Worse still: Liability related to the dump’s waste reverts to the state of Texas after only 30 years. If only radioactive waste were as short-lived.

Hadden’s letter notes that the history of radioactive waste disposal in the United States, marked by an untold number of leaks, includes instances where spent fuel rods — known to include some of the most toxic and longest-lived radionuclides, including Uranium-235‘s 700 million-year half-life — were illegally buried. In spite of the risks, the Commission’s decision was a unanimous one. Perhaps because Perry re-stacked the commission and booted Bobby Gregory, who had voted against expanding the compact in the past, in exchange for a favorable vote cast by one of the Commission’s newest members, former CPS Energy CEO Milton Lee.