ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990                   TAG: 9007190635
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

STUDY CONCLUDES THAT NUCLEAR WASTE POLICY `BOUND TO FAIL'

A National Research Council report says a plan for an underground dump for high-level nuclear waste is "bound to fail" because it requires an assurance of safety that science can't guarantee.

The report said a U.S. policy requiring the Department of Energy to build a deep underground nuclear dump that is absolutely assured of being safe for 10,000 years is a scientific and engineering impossibility.

"A policy that promises to anticipate every conceivable problem, or assumes that science will shortly provide all the answers, is bound to fail," the study said.

It notes that the 10,000-year requirement covers a period that is as long as all of recorded human history.

The study said federal law should give DOE more flexibility to allow for uncertainties found while building such a large project that has never before been attempted.

However, Melinda Kassen, a lawyer for the Environmental Defense Fund, said her organization and other environmental groups believe the standards now in place should be enforced and that a policy demanding firm evidence of safety is the correct approach.

"There is wisdom, we believe, in trying to assure up front that you're not going to have contamination or catastrophe down the road," Kassen said. "Before putting nuclear waste in the ground, you ought to show that the system is going to work."

The study said the effect of current laws is that DOE managers feel required to do things "perfectly the first time." While preparing an underground depository for high-level radioactive wastes, the report said, federal experts are not given the flexibility to find ways to cope with unexpected geological features.

This rigid approach, the study said, creates a "scientific trap" by "encouraging the public to expect absolute certainty about the safety of the repository for 10,000 years and encouraging DOE program managers to pretend that they can provide it." 


 by CNB