Tennessee officials keep radioactive waste details from public

Ten years ago, when Murfreesboro residents learned the state had approved the dumping of low-level radioactive waste at a local landfill, a fierce community backlash swiftly put an end to the practice.

Today, Tennessee citizens have no way to find out how much low-level radioactive waste is going into other landfills.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, or TDEC, has wiped that data from its website and said it is confidential.

Asked why, TDEC spokesman Eric Ward cited a ten-year-old state law the agency has just begun referencing to deny information. 

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TDEC's withholding of information which has, for years, been open to the public comes at the same time that companies in Tennessee have filed notice they plan to import up to 10,000 metric tons - or more than 22 million pounds - of low-level nuclear waste from Canada for processing.

That plan has alarmed environmental activists who are pursuing legal efforts to stop it at the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"This means that not only us, but members of the public who live close to landfills or processors, will have no way to know what's going across the street," said Don Safer, a board member with the Tennessee Environmental Council.

Old law, new interpretation

The 2007 state law TDEC now relies on to deny information about low-level radioactive waste cites the Atomic Energy Act and an agreement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on what information to keep confidential.

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However, NRC spokesman David McIntyre said he knows of no law or rule that makes confidential the location and quantity of waste and said: "I don't know why it would be."

The NRC provides similar data concerning activities at the four federal low-level radioactive waste landfills it regulates to the public.

Back in 2007, lawmakers debating the measure cited by TDEC made clear it was intended to keep confidential only information the federal government deemed secret.

“It would have to be protected under federal law as being confidential before we could protect it under state law,” said then-Rep. Kent Coleman, the measure’s sponsor, according to archived audio of the discussions.

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During one April 2007 hearing, a TDEC attorney asked specifically whether the law would apply to keeping information on low-level radioactive waste secret said it would not, according to the audio.

Ward, the TDEC spokesman, declined several requests to speak by phone to a Tennessean reporter last week and refused to make an expert at the agency's Division of Radiological Health available by phone. The Tennessean first made that request Nov. 6. 

Instead, Ward sent another email on the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 17 declining to speak by phone and said: "I would like to mention that TDEC is working toward a solution and it is TDEC's intent to have the authority to soon begin providing that information again."

Low level, but how safe?

Low-level radioactive waste is a broad term that encompasses contaminated materials from commercial reactors, such as lab supplies, tools, machine parts, tools, power plant equipment and debris from decommissioned nuclear plants.

It does not include spent nuclear fuel. Medical waste is also categorized as low-level.

The waste deposited in landfills doesn't pose a danger to public health or the environment, according to TDEC, which describes the nuclear materials on its website as "very low level."

Very low-level is not a formal designation and does not have a statutory or regulatory definition, but is generally understood to contain small amounts of residual radioactivity, according to the NRC.

The waste is as safe as naturally occurring radiation people are exposed to in their daily lives, according to TDEC, which notes on its website state regulations require the waste cannot contribute more than five percent of the total waste in a landfill. 

Diane Diane D’Arrigo, radioactive waste project director for the Maryland-based Nuclear Information and Resource Service, questions TDEC's safety claims, noting that low-level waste is a catchall definition for any radioactive material that is not a lethal dose.

D'Arrigo also questioned the large quantities of waste going into Tennessee landfills that were originally permitted for household waste.

More than 5.3 million pounds of low-level radioactive waste has been released into state landfills between 2014 and 2016, according to information TDEC no longer publishes but was accessed through cached versions of their website.

The same radioactive materials present in high level radioactive wastes, such as spent nuclear fuel, are present in low-level waste but in smaller quantities, said Dr. Michael Keagan, a nuclear expert with the Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes.

Environmentalists also the question TDEC's lack of transparency. If the waste is safe, why can't the public access information about it, asked Don Safer, board member of the Tennessee Environmental Council.

"The transparency is not there and the public is being left in the dark," he said. "Low level does not mean low risk."

Tennessee a destination for radioactive waste

Oak Ridge's unique role in the development of the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project has long made Tennessee attractive to a nuclear industry seeking to shed contaminated materials. 

The state has more radioactive waste processors than any other in the nation, according to TDEC. These processors can treat radioactive waste before it is disposed in landfills as low-level waste.

The state's "Bulk Survey for Release" program licenses those processors and others wishing to dispose of low-level radioactive waste in Tennessee landfills.

It's a program that environmentalists and some state lawmakers have criticized for giving the nuclear waste industry, rather than state regulators, responsibility for conducting their own testing to ensure materials meet state guidelines.

The regulatory landscape has made Tennessee a destination for such waste from California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other states, which have bypassed nearer municipal waste landfills to come to Tennessee.

There are four Tennessee landfills that are licensed to accept the waste. Two are located in Shelby County while the other two are in Anderson and Hawkins counties.

A fifth, Middle Point landfill in Murfeesboro, ceased accepting such waste in 2008 after residents and lawmakers expressed outrage when they learned millions of pounds of the waste had been deposited at the site, which sits near the Stones River, with no public notice or input.

Reach Anita Wadhwani at awadhwani@tennessean.com; 615-259-8092 or on Twitter @AnitaWadhwani.