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The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to pay $65,000 to the state of Nevada after it mislabeled radioactive waste that it disposed of in a site north of Las Vegas between 2013 and 2019.
The waste had been characterized as low-level radioactive waste, when it should have been characterized as low-level mixed waste, the Associated Press reported.
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak was told by former-Energy Secretary Rick Perry in July 2019 that 33 packages of unapproved waste were sent to the Nevada National Security Site in 10 shipments from the Energy Department’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee.
The Energy Department said none of the materials disposed of posed any health or safety threats to workers or the public. Low-level waste can include equipment or worker’s clothing contaminated by exposure to radiation, while mixed low-level waste can include toxic metals..
On top of the $65,000, the settlement states that changes have been made to the federal department’s waste management practices to stop unapproved waste from being disposed of at the site in the future. It also establishes an additional groundwater monitoring well at the site.
Nevada Division of Environmental Protection Administrator Greg Lovato said that the settlement was the result of a collaborative effort between state and federal regulators to enhance the Department of Energy’s waste management program and allow the state agency to closely monitor those efforts, the AP reported.
“Although DOE’s unapproved waste disposal was an unfortunate misstep, we are thankful that this experience has helped lead the way to significant improvements that will further protect public health and the natural environment for generals to come.”
The Energy Department said in a statement that the settlement builds on the agency’s commitment to enhance waste management activities while protecting its workforce, the public, and the environment.
In 2018, a shipment of one-half metric ton of weapons-grade plutonium was disposed of at the site from a Department of Energy facility in South Carolina. That disposal was part of a two-year-long federal court battle that resulted in a separate settlement agreement last summer, whereby the government agreed to start removing the waste from the Nevada site this year, according to the AP.
Do you leave near a disposal site for radioactive material? Tell us your experience in the comments section!
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