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Radioactive Waste Records Kept From Public

Records Remain Protected Years After Companies Closed

POSTED: 4:28 pm CDT July 23, 2007
UPDATED: 3:56 pm CDT July 24, 2007

The state is holding a third public forum Tuesday to explain its program for dumping low-level radioactive trash.

Video: Residents Hungry For Answers Regarding Radioactive Dumping

Some Murfreesboro neighbors said the first two meetings were disappointing.

They had no chance to speak at all at the first meeting and no chance to ask questions or debate points at the second.

Ever since the I-Team uncovered the story there's been a suspicion that information was being kept under wraps.

Two months have passed since an I-Team report uncovered a state program that's allowed five ordinary landfills in Tennessee to accept low-level radioactive trash for nearly 20 years.

At the first meeting last Tuesday night, there was a familiar refrain from citizens who felt they had been lied to about the dumping.

When the story was first reported, the state Legislature put a temporary stop to it at Middle Point Landfill in Murfreesboro.

With the clock ticking, neighbors said they're still hungry for answers and candor.

“Some would have you believe the assessments and associated materials were submitted in a way to hide it from public information,” said health physicist Mark McHugh.

McHugh, who helped pioneer the process called Bulk Survey for Release, came from Oak Ridge last week to offer his expertise.

Months ago, in a long phone call, Mark told Channel 4 News’ Demetria Kalodimos about some of the earliest loads of low-level waste to go into the ground at Middle Point.

“They had some soil from the Port of New Orleans that had some radium in it and he said, ‘We’re going to analyze exactly what happens if we put this radium contaminated soil into Middle Point Landfill,’” he said.

There was a second experiment with waste from a Commonwealth Edison Power Plant in Illinois. Art Palmer, who also spoke at the meeting, supervised that.

“There is a paper trail for every piece of material that goes through this process,” he said.

The I-Team has been unable to see any of that 17-year-old paperwork.

It's considered proprietary even though the companies involved have folded.

Some said the tone of the debate might be different now if so many papers weren't proprietary.

“One company in the United States, Energy Solutions, controls all the disposal space for low-level material. They have a monopoly on waste disposal. Material that has passed the Bulk Survey for Release process doesn't belong in a low-level waste disposal facility. It's a waste of that space,” Palmer said.


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