Nuclear Dumping Program Declared Safe

A state board has given its stamp of approval to the practice of dumping waste from nuclear sites in five Tennessee landfills.

This spring, people in Rutherford County were surprised to find that their landfill participates in the program known as BSFR. Their protests lead the General Assembly to temporarily stop dumping such material there, and commission a study into the practice.

That study ended today when the Solid Waste Advisory Committee unanimously agreed that the program is safe and adequately monitored. Even so, many members felt the Department of Environment and Conservation must work to gain public trust. The department’s Land Resources Director, Chuck Head, agreed.

“People do need to feel that we’re doing a good job, and that our primary interest is the protection of public health and environment, and where we can look at our operations and do better, I think we’re going to be more than glad to do that.”

In its recommendation, the committee calls for more transparency on the part of TDEC. It asks for an annual report of how much material from nuclear sites is dumped in Tennessee, plus a better overall system of public notice and input. The group also wants TDEC to make several internal improvements to its management of the process. None of those changes would affect the amount or kind of waste allowed in the state’s landfills.

Under the BSFR program, waste from nuclear sites can only go into landfills if it gives off a radiation dose of 1 millirem per year or less. For comparison, that’s five times less than the exposure to passengers on a cross-country airline flight.

According to TDEC, the temporary moratorium on dumping that waste expires on Monday.

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When the state created its BSFR (Bulk Survey for Release) program, it essentially opted out of an existing federal process for directing the same category of waste to landfills. In doing so, Tennessee created stricter limits than those set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC): 1 millirem in Tennessee, as opposed to the NRC’s guideline of “a few millirems,” which in practice is considered to mean 5 millirem. Tennessee also streamlined the process of labelling a batch of waste as being “bulk survey material” and eligible for dumping in a regular, Class I landfill.