Nov 13 - Augusta Chronicle, The

Starting next summer, many power plants, hospitals, universities and companies in 36 states will be forced to store low- level radioactive waste on their own property because a South Carolina landfill is closing.

The states have known for years that this day would come. Because of political opposition, environmental fears and cost concerns, most of them have done almost nothing toward building new landfills.

At issue is the Barnwell County dump site, a 235-acre expanse that opened in 1971. The equivalent of more than 40 tractor- trailers full of radioactive trash from 39 states was buried there each year before South Carolina lawmakers in 2000 ordered the place to scale back because they no longer wanted the state to be the nation's dumping ground.

As of July 1, the landfill will take waste only from South Carolina and the two states with which it formed a partnership, New Jersey and Connecticut.

State and industry officials say the not-in-my-backyard resistance will ironically lead to "temporary" storage sites in backyards across the nation.

"I'm concerned about it, that my hospitals in my neighborhood will have to store this stuff on site," said Rita Houskie, the administrator for disposal of the waste in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Other states affected by the shutdown include California, New York, Illinois, Florida and Texas.

The danger, some officials say, is that storing the waste in potentially hundreds of locations across the country could allow radiation to escape.

Though none of the trash could be used to make a nuclear bomb, some experts fear it could be stolen to make "dirty bombs," which use conventional explosives to scatter radioactive debris.

Originally published by Associated Press.

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