Burying Our Radioactive Garbage

California must find a place to bury low-level radioactive waste, because the sites that now accept such materials may soon deny access to outsiders. Politically, deciding whose desert will become the California site is a tough call. But if the Legislature acts quickly it can at least avoid becoming a dumping ground for the entire nation.

Most waste is generated by industry--contaminated clothing from power plants and the like--even though most people associate the wastes with radiation used in medical diagnosis and treatment. California is the largest producer of such waste west of the Mississippi, accounting for about 8% of the nation’s total. Low-level contamination can take as much as 100 years to dissipate; it is harmful with direct exposure, so the material must be shielded and buried during that time.

At present there are only three disposal sites in the country--at Hanford, Wash., where much of California’s waste is now buried, at Beatty, Nev., and at Barnwell, S.C. In 1980 Congress passed the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act to prod states to open more disposal sites. Under the act, states can open new sites and then agree with other states in their region to accept waste only from those states. Washington state has already agreed to a compact with several of its neighbors. Southeastern states have also formed a compact.

With the Nevada site likely to close by June, 1989, and other Southwest states considering an alliance with Colorado, California runs the risk of being left to go it alone. The catch is that any state that has been unwilling or unable to negotiate a compact has to take waste from every state.

There is a way out. Arizona, which was originally involved with Colorado and other states, has negotiated a compact with California. The state legislatures still must ratify the compact. A bill, SB 106, which ratifies this new Western Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact, has passed the California Senate but is stalled in the Assembly. The Arizona Legislature meets only through April; if the bill is to get to Congress for its approval before gates start closing on California, there must be quick action in Sacramento.

The site would probably be in a Southern California desert, because the best waste sites are those where the water table is low and there is little rain. Which Southern California desert is going to be the sticking point.

Clearly there must be a disposal site, because hospitals, university laboratories and power plants have only so much storage space. The California Legislature has already authorized the establishment of a waste-disposal facility. Now the regional compact offers Californians some control over who may use it and how big it will have to be. The Assembly must act again, and quickly.