THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 26, 1995 TAG: 9501260370
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ESTES THOMPSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The state agency that is trying to build a low-level radioactive waste dump in Wake County expects to save at least $600,000 this year through cost-cutting by its contractor, an official said Wednesday.
Although the cost-savings plan was in effect before the Southeast Compact Commission cut an agency appropriation request this month, the savings take on new urgency now, said John Mac Millan. He is executive director of the state Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Authority.
``We got enough money to last this year,'' and will have to ask the commission for more in the fall to extend operations into 1996, Mac Millan said. By then, however, the commission should have a better idea whether the state Division of Radiation Protection will issue a license for the site in Wake County.
The authority asked the commission for an additional $12 million to complete testing and take the disposal work into the next year. The commission gave the state $5.4 million and some commissioners said they were concerned that the work was taking too long and costing too much.
That additional allocation, plus the authority's reserve will produce $3 million a quarter through 1995.
Chem-Nuclear is saving the funds by not hiring a replacement for an employee who resigned in the public relations department and by not using outside writers and editors for technical work, said company spokeswoman Gail Ronenberg.
Commission members from Tennessee also expressed concern with expenditures and voted against allowing the additional funds, as did one Virginia member.
Mac Millan told the commissioners from eight Southeast states the money will get North Carolina through the critical period of assessing the site and answering questions posed by state regulators after Chem-Nuclear applies for a license to operate the dump.
Original estimates to construct the facility were about $40 million. The current estimate to obtain a license is about $112 million and another estimated $65 million to build the dump.
The commission represents Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
The current disposal site is at Barnwell, S.C., and will close at the end of 1995, forcing low-level waste generators to store waste on their own property.
Low-level radioactive wastes range from protective clothing worn by nuclear plant workers to equipment used to change fuel rods at nuclear power plants. The actual rods are considered high-level waste.
Mac Millan said that if the Wake County site is ultimately approved by state regulators, the earliest a facility could open would be the summer of 1997, but a more realistic schedule would be the summer of 1998.
KEYWORDS: NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP by CNB