High Waste Levels at S.C. Reactor Site Did No Harm to Outside

WASHINGTON — Nuclear waste activities at the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina have produced high contamination levels inside the boundaries of the weapons facility but little environmental impact outside them, congressional investigators said Friday.

A General Accounting Office study, released by Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), said there is a remote possibility that waste sites at the plant could someday contaminate the Tuscaloosa aquifer, the main source of water for South Carolina and Georgia.

GAO said its two-year study found that from 1980 through 1984, streams running through the plant’s property showed “elevated levels of radioactivity.”