Get your own Free HomepageThe underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), which will accept plutonium-contaminated waste from the nation's temporary storage facilities, was scheduled to receive its first shipment from the Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear facility on Friday.
But New Mexico's environment department said the federal Department of Energy failed to prove the waste was not tainted with other solvents or toxic chemicals regulated by the state.
Officials said approving the permit to store those agents could take at least another six months.
New Mexico's government strongly supports WIPP's opening but environment department spokesman Nathan Wade said the agency was duty-bound to enforce federal laws on hazardous waste, including landfills and underground storage tanks.
``It is ironic that the Environmental Protection Agency agreed to store this radioactive waste for 10,000 years and we're nit-picking over the contents of a magic marker or lead from some gloves,'' Wade said on Friday.
``It's stupid, but it points to a failure of federal law. And even bad laws need to be enforced evenly,'' he added.
U.S. District Judge John Garrett Penn also has asked the Department of Energy to hold off shipments until July 10 so he has time to review a motion filed by state Attorney General Tom Udall, a longtime WIPP opponent.
Udall filed the motion asking to block any shipments until the state permit is issued. A hearing is set for the end of the month.
WIPP has been in planning for decades but has been hit by numerous delays. It will store plutonium-contaminated waste more than 2,000 feet underground in salt beds near Carlsbad in southern New Mexico.
Anti-nuclear groups applauded the decision to postpone the opening of WIPP and claimed the Department of Energy was planning to go beyond its mandate to store radioactive military waste at the site by also dumping nonmilitary waste.
Jay Coglin, a spokesman for the Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety group, said almost half the waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory is nonmilitary material, including plutonium generated from batteries used by NASA.
He said the plutonium used in making the batteries is 200 times more powerful than that used in making weapons.
``Critics have long feared that the DOE will open WIPP then stick in waste other than what the law provides ... It seems our fears are being realized with the very first shipment,'' he said.
- REUTERS
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