Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 12, 1993 TAG: 9301120281
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLAND LENGTH: Medium
BOARD SAYS NO TO FACILITY
The Bland County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 Monday night to ban any kind of nuclear waste storage facilities in the county.The unanimous adoption of the ordinance followed what was billed as an educational session about the proposed facility.
A Bluefield State College mechanical engineering professor found near-unanimous opposition Monday night to his suggestion that such a facility be located in the county.
"Some people seem to think I'm bringing a plague upon this area," John Sage said of storing spent nuclear fuel rods in this area. He said people should look at radioactivity as "just another natural phenomenon we have to deal with."
More than 100 people turned out for what the Bland County Board of Supervisors called an educational session on facilities for holding spent but still radioactive nuclear fuel for up to 40 years, until a permanent storage facility is built.
It would bring in millions of government dollars and hundreds of new jobs for Bland County, Sage said. He and Felix Killard, with the U.S. Council of Energy Awareness, said the storage facility would be safe and not permanent.
Others disagreed. "Since 1987 this project has gone looking for a home," said Lou Zeller of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.
No localities want it, he said. And any money that a locality would make off the project would be spent on cleaning it up when it leaked.
"If you take it, you're going to be stuck with it," agreed Clinch Valley College Professor David Rouse, "because no one knows what to do with it."
As for radioactivity being just another natural phenomenon, Rouse said, "so are hurricanes and earthquakes and other natural disasters. We don't invite them upon us."
"They want poor dumb people who are too stupid to know what's good for them. . . . They'll do anything for a job," said Darlene Wilson of Save Our Appalachian Resources. "Don't trust the experts. Trust your gut on this one."
Wilson, who has been in the forefront of keeping wastes of various kinds out of her home in Wise County, said corporations in Virginia are among the top 10 in the country with spent nuclear wastes they cannot get rid of. She said they are the ones who seek out places like Bland County to try to dump it.
Sage agreed that the nuclear industry had not done a good job in handling its wastes during its early decades. He said procedures have been tightened now and are safe.
The county Board of Supervisors held a public hearing last month on a proposed ordinance that would ban the location of a nuclear wastes repository. Rouse urged the board to ban any kind of wastes not generated within the county.