THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 14, 1995 TAG: 9501140223
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER AND DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Concern for storage space at Newport News Shipbuilding was the big reason the Navy went to Idaho this week to find a safe holding site for radioactive wastes from its ships, officials said Friday.
``Virtually all, if not all'' of the eight shipments of waste that Idaho Gov. Phil Batt agreed to accept temporarily in a surprise deal announced Thursday comes from Newport News, a senior Navy official said.
It appears none of the waste will be relayed from Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. Nor does the deal diminish the possibility that the Navy may still recommend that shipyard for long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel, officials said.
A spokesman for Newport News Shipbuilding - one of six shipyards in the country that service the Navy's nuclear fleet - said Friday that the company has been authorized to dispose of eight of its waste shipments.
Much of the material comes from repair work on the carrier Enterprise, which spent almost four years dry-docked in Newport News before rejoining the fleet, company spokesman Mike Hatfield said.
The military official in Washington said the Navy needs to ensure that Newport News is cleared of its waste backlog so that nuclear-powered ships have an East Coast refueling and maintenance facility at the ready.
That need is so great that, in striking the deal with the new Republican governor of Idaho, Defense Secretary William Perry attested that finding a temporary disposal site was a matter of national security.
In exchange for accepting the new shipments, Batt received assurances that the federal government would work with Idaho to ensure the opening of permanent dumps outside his state.
Wastes now held at Idaho National Engineering Laboratory could be shipped to the new dumps.
The announcement Thursday led to some speculation that the Navy and the Department of Energy were perhaps giving up on storing spent nuclear fuel at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.
But, federal officials said, the Idaho deal has little to do with any future plans in Portsmouth.
``We haven't finished the process yet,'' James R. Giusti, a Department of Energy spokesman in South Carolina, said of environmental studies on where to put a new waste site.
``No announcement of a preferred alternative has been made. We're still working on that.''
Giusti said a site recommendation should be made in April.
The Navy has been discussing the possibility of keeping spent fuel in Portsmouth for up to 40 years as part of its alternative strategy for permanent storage in Idaho.
This option is loudly opposed by environmentalists and some Portsmouth residents, who contend that keeping radioactive material in a densely populated area like Portsmouth is too dangerous.
``As much as I'd like to say the contrary, I don't feel this changes the potential of a permanent site coming to Portsmouth,'' said Robert Deegan, a Virginia Beach resident and nuclear-issues specialist with the Sierra Club.
``I still think it's lunacy for them to talk about putting it here, but I see this agreement as more of a move by the Navy because they have no other place to go.''
Due to court orders, environmental and political opposition and simple bureaucracy, the Navy has told its shipyards to store radioactive wastes on site.
Several containers have been kept at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and Newport News Shipbuilding for more than a year.
The waste comes in the form of spent fuel rods and contaminated material from the refueling or decommissioning of Navy ships.
The eight shipments from Newport News to Idaho are expected to begin in about six weeks and should be completed in several months, Navy officials said.
KEYWORDS: NUCLEAR STORAGE AND WASTE U.S. NORFOLK NAVAL SHIPYARD
NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING by CNB