NUKE WASTE RULES MAY BE EASED CHANGE COULD AFFECT ROCKETDYNE CLEANUP.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

To the dismay of local activists, two federal agencies have started to consider new rules that could allow various types of low-level radioactive waste to be deposited in hazardous-waste or even municipal landfills rather than special dumps.

Watchdogs fear the federal government is trying to relax regulations on radioactive materials in order to make former nuclear site cleanups cheaper at the expense of public health.

``People should be very concerned. This is just a tiny, tiny warning shot of what they are proposing,'' said Daniel Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear watchdog group actively pushing for a thorough cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the nuclear and rocket fuel research facility which Boeing Co. took over from Rocketdyne.

Federal environmental officials say they are just trying to improve the management of low-level radioactive waste.

``We're looking at existing capacity, existing management, and thinking about the best ways to handle these wastes in the future,'' said John Millet, spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Two potential rules are on the horizon - both of which would impact cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the hills between Chatsworth and Simi Valley, where the Department of Energy is in the midst of the multimillion-dollar task of decontaminating and decommissioning buildings used for nuclear development.

One proposed rule from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would set specific limits for furniture, building materials, soil and other materials that come from labs using radioactive materials but have little radioactivity themselves to be recycled or dumped in municipal landfill.

Those materials currently can go to local dumps or be recycled when the operator decides it's safe, but there's no standard for what is considered safe.

California currently bars from local landfills any waste from decommissioned sites - a moratorium imposed by former Gov. Gray Davis after state officials discovered truckloads of building debris, soil and other waste from the Santa Susana facility was dumped in local landfills.

While DOE officials said the debris had little or no radioactivity, civic leaders and environmentalists worried about even a trace because municipal landfills weren't designed to handle radioactive materials.

The other proposed rule comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which wants to create a new category of materials with small concentrations of radionuclides called ``low-activity radioactive waste.'' The EPA is considering sending low-activity waste to hazardous waste landfills, such as those in Buttonwillow and Kettleman City in the San Joaquin Valley.

Private and public institutions that generate radioactive waste said the idea of sending some low-level waste to some landfills is worth investigating.

``It might be useful; there are certain things that can be disposed in hazardous waste or municipal landfills without risk to the public,'' said Alan Pasternak, technical director of the California Radioactive Materials Management Forum.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has argued the EPA should shelve any idea of sending hot waste to landfills.

``Radioactive waste, if not stringently regulated, could be disposed of in facilities that are neither designed for nor licensed to accept such materials, to the detriment of our environment and the health of our citizens,'' Feinstein wrote to EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt.

The EPA is collecting comments through March 17 and more information on the agency's advance notice of proposed rulemaking is available at www.epa.gov/radiation/larw/index.html.

The NRC has closed the public comment period for its proposal to allow very low-level radioactive waste in landfills.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com