Research Projects: Nuclear Cleanup: The Standards Conflict (2004)
Download Link (.pdf, 1.8mb) The U.S. Department of Energy has recently violated a longstanding Joint DOE-EPA
Policy which commits DOE to clean up all its nuclear facilities nationwide to the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund (CERCLA) standards. The focal point of this conflict
between DOE and EPA cleanup standards is the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), a 2800-
acre facility on the Los Angeles-Ventura County line in Southern California.
Reports: Proposed Relaxation of EPA Drinking Water Standards for Radioactivity Download link (.pdf, 6.6mb) October, 2008
In the waning days of the George W. Bush administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drafted extraordinary new radiological standards for the governmental response to a wide range of radiological release events. Doug Guarino of the trade publication Inside EPA obtained a copy of the secret draft "Protective Action Guidance for Radiological Incidents," dated August 2007 and marked "Please Do Not Distribute" and "Do Not Cite or Quote." Mr. Guarino has written about the concerns the document has triggered within EPA and other state regulators.
In late 2008, it became clear to CBG that EPA was contemplating the issuance of the draft. In this report, we analyze this incredible proposal pushed by EPA leadership. CBG's report specifically focuses on the proposal to allow the public to ingest drinking water with radioactive concentrations orders of magnitude higher than EPA's longstanding radiological drinking water standards.
The Proposed Ward Valley
Radioactive Waste Facility:
Papers Submitted to the
National Academy of Sciences Download link (.pdf, 3.3mb) October 12, 1994 Comprehensive radiation monitoring data for the US Ecology
LLRW site at Beatty, Nevada,
published in the last few days, provide a unique
opportunity to evaluate the validity ofoptimistic
transport models that have been
used to predict travel times to groundwater in the tens of
millennia. The newly
available data show gross alpha readings in groundwater in excess
of action
levels in eight different years, gross beta in violation of action levels seven years,
and tritium in excess ofaction levels four years, with significantly elevated tritium
(>1,000 pCi/L)
but below action levels an additional four years. The data
provide clear evidence that
radioactive materials have migratedfrom the disposal
trenches 10 groundwater, 300 feet
beneath the surface, in a few decades. The
presence of elevated gross alpha, gross beta,
and Cobalt-60 in the groundwater,
in addition to substantial tritium, rule out vapor-phase
migration. These
empirical observations of rapid radionuclide migration contrast sharply with
predictions by Prudic (1994) for Beatty and Ward Valley using Chloride Mass
Balance calculations.
Contamination at the Beatty, Nevada, Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (1996) Download link (.pdf, 15.5mb) [Note: this is a very large file and will take time to download]
In the 1990s, contaminants were discovered outside US Ecology's
radioactive waste facility near Beatty, Nevada, and all the way down to
groundwater. In this report, we evaluate this discovery and its relevance to the now defunct proposal to dispose of radioactive waste at Ward Valley.
Hearing Testimony: California Senate Select Committee on Urban Landfills
Download link (.pdf 380kb)
Dan Hirsch Testifies before the Committee regarding radiation waste in landfills
March 7, 2003,
Ronald Reagan Building,
Los Angeles, CA
Subcommittee on the Committee on Government Operations
United States House of Representatives Download link (.pdf, 1.2mb)
Ocean Dumping of Radioactive Waste off the Pacific CoastHearing
Dan Hirsch, Testimony
October 7, 1980, Washington, D.C. Please note: the quality of this document is at times poor.
Subcommittee on General Oversight and Investigation
United States House of Representatives
Threat of Sabotage and Terrorism to Commercial Nuclear Powerplants
Dan Hirsch, Testimony
Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, House of Representatives March 9, 1988, Washington, D.C.
For a quarter of a century, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) kept its dirty little secret: Despite the fact that a successful attack on a U.S. nuclear plant could cause thousands of illnesses and deaths in the surrounding area, and despite the clear increase in terrorist threats over that same period, the commission continued to require the country's nuclear power plant operators to maintain only a minimal security capability.
