WHAT SCIENTISTS SAY
ABOUT WARD VALLEY
National Academy
of Sciences Ward Valley Panel
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"While there are conceivable, but unlikely, flowpaths for some
groundwater within Ward Valley to reach the Colorado River, conservative
bounding calculations suggest that the potential impacts on the
river water quality would be insignificant relative to present natural
levels of radionuclides in the river and would meet accepted regulatory
health standards." |
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National
Academy of Sciences Ward Valley Panel Report, May 11, 1995, page
149 |
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Dr. Debra Knopman,
former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, Department
of the Interior
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"...you had 17 very qualified people who agreed on an enormous
amount of information. On a very complicated issue
on which there
was no dissent, that even if there was any kind of migration of
material from the surface to the ground water that the impact on
the Colorado River would be just insignificant. The Secretary regarded
that as a very significant finding." |
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On
KCRW-FM Public Radio, Los Angeles, June 1, 1995 |
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Bruce Babbitt,
Secretary of the Interior
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"I've never believed that being an environmentalist means saying
'no' to necessity. The National Academy of Sciences says its safe,
so I'm prepared to go ahead with it." |
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As
quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, June 5, 1995 |
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Gordon Eaton, Director
of the U.S. Geological Survey
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"The review team believes that the observed tritium distribution
at Beatty is probably the result of the burial of liquid wastes
and the fact that some disposal trenches at Beatty were open for
years until filled, allowing accumulation and infiltration of precipitation..."
"The license that the State of California has issued for the
Ward Valley facility does not permit disposal of radioactive waste
in liquid form and requires that only the minimum amount of open
trench necessary for safe and efficient operation shall be excavated
at any one time. Because of the differences in waste-burial practices
at the Beatty site compared to those intended for the Ward Valley
site, and the previously mentioned uncertainties about the transport
mechanisms at Beatty, extrapolations of the results from Beatty
to Ward Valley are too tenuous to have much scientific value..."
(Emphasis added.) |
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February
14, 1996 memo to Ed Hastey, State Director (California) U.S. Bureau
of Land Management |
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Dr. George Thompson,
Professor of Geophysics, Stanford University
Chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Ward Valley Committee
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"From a purely scientific standpoint, none of the data reviewed
by the Committee support further delay or opposition to construction
of the facility provided the oversight and monitoring recommendations
of the Committee are put in place." |
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April
22, 1996 letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors |
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Dr. Shirley Ann
Jackson, Chairman,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
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"In past reviews of the California Agreement State Program
the NRC staff concluded that California's low-level waste regulations
are compatible with those of the NRC; that California has followed
NRC licensing guidelines and the standard review plan for acceptance
and review of the Ward Valley application; and that the California
staff, advisory committees and supporting contractual staff are
well qualified and capable of conducting a highly effective and
thorough review of the application." |
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Address
to the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Forum, Annapolis, Maryland. May
29, 1996. |
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Dr. Tina Berger
Nova, President and Chief Operating Officer,
Nanogen, Inc. and Chair, Democratic Biomedical Caucus
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"Ward Valley delays are creating hardships for California Universities,
medical centers and biotech firms and damaging our area's sagging
economy." |
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Letter
to Senator Dianne Feinstein, July 1, 1996 |
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