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Ambient office = 120 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Tomato from Central Market = 82 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 92 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 82 nanosieverts per hour

Dover Sole from Central 112 nanosieverts per hour

Part 3 of 3 Parts (Please read Parts 1 and 2 first)
      In a preliminary version of the environmental impact statement, the NRC has suggested that a new forty-year license be issued. Their reasons for the recommendation include the importance of the CFFF to the U.S. commercial nuclear plant industry and their conclusion that the environmental threats are not great enough to warrant denying the license.
     Virginia Sanders is a Lower Richland environmental activist and Sierra Club official. She said that the continued operation of the CFFF threatens the environment. This is especially true as more intense rains related to climate change pound the Columbia area. The concern is that pollution from the CFFF could wash into the surrounding community. She added that “That plant is over 50 years old. That plant should never have been put there in the first place. Anything in Lower Richland is on low land. And with the number of flooding events on the East Coast and other climate change events, that plant should not be operating there. I’m just waiting for the day when a catastrophe happens.’’
     Tom Clements is a nuclear safety watchdog from Columbia. He said that he was disappointed by the NRC decision but not surprised. He called on the NRC to reconsider its action. In an email, he said that “It has been clear from the start of the license renewal process that the NRC was going to do what Westinghouse requested in spite of a long list of incidents at the facility and even an admission by the NRC that release of contaminants in the future was reasonably foreseeable. The 40-year license extension guarantees the risk of accidents and releases that will impact the environment and possibly human health over 40 years. Unfortunately, I now anticipate that careful behavior shown by Westinghouse during the period of the EIS preparation will be relaxed as Westinghouse is essentially now being given a license to pollute.’’
     The CFFF’s environmental and safety challenges emerged within a few years of the 1969 opening. Many of the problems have centered on the failure of Westinghouse to handle radioactive materials so that they would not create small nuclear accidents that could endanger workers. Many of those concerns can be traced back to the early Eighties.
     Since 1980, federal and state regulators have discovered more than forty different environmental and safety problems at the CFFF. In some cases, the NRC repeatedly told the company to make improvements. However, Westinghouse did not move quickly enough to address the concerns of the NRC.
      Two of the biggest incidents in the past twenty years have involved the buildup of uranium in plant equipment. These deficiencies could have endangered workers. The NRC fined Westinghouse twenty-four thousand dollars in 2004 after finding out that uranium had accumulated in an incinerator to unsafe levels over eight years. Westinghouse had assumed that the uranium levels were safe. However, the problem was discovered in 2004 by an employee. The excess uranium could have triggered a nuclear accident that could have injured or killed workers.
      In 2016, Westinghouse discovered that uranium had accumulated in a scrubber which is an air pollution control device to levels that were three times higher than permitted by a federal safety standard. When pressured to explain why the buildup occurred, Westinghouse’s internal inspectors told the NRC that the company had not done enough to ensure employees had strong enough procedures to keep uranium from building up and had a “less than question” attitude about procedures to prevent a nuclear accident.
     Two years later, a leak of uranium through a hole in the floor of the plant brought a barrage of complaints about Westinghouse. The discovery of the leak led to finding that some groundwater pollution on the site had been known by the company for years but never reported to federal or state regulators.

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Ambient office = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water =109 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 77 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 3 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
      The next step for the NRC is to issue a safety review before the final licensing decision is made. In a press release, the NRC said that the final environmental study found that the plant would only have small to moderate impacts on the environment if the new license is issued. The NRC said that the impacts in issuing a twenty-year license would be similar to the impacts for issuing a forty-year license. The last NRC license for Westinghouse was issued in 2007.
     The biggest environmental impacts from continuing to operate the CFFF would on ground and surface water according to the last environmental impact statement. Past operation of the plant has had a “noticeable effect” on groundwater quality. The quality of surface water has also been affected. The report said that uranium exceeded federal standards in the mud of Mill Creek. However, the reports said that groundwater contamination will not spread offsite.
     The NRC study said, “Although the proposed continued operation of the (fuel plant) for an additional 40 years could noticeably alter onsite groundwater quality, the continued operation would not destabilize or significantly affect the groundwater resource because there is low potential for contaminants to move offsite.’’
     The CFFF was established in 1969. It is one of the Columbia area’s major employers with almost a thousand workers. It is located on a quiet stretch of Bluff Road near Hopkins. Hopkins is a small community mostly composed of African American residents. The five hundred and fifty thousand square foot plant makes fuel rods for use in commercial nuclear fission power plants. Nuclear materials at the site consist of low-enriched uranium which is not as dangerous as some other types of radioactive materials, but it is still hazardous.
      Westinghouse’s process involves handling small pellets of uranium and inserting them into long rods for use in nuclear power plants. Uranium hexafluoride is converted into uranium dioxide at the CFFF. The company is recognized as an economic engine in Richland County and has been praised by the South Carolina Governor and local business leaders.
     The CFFF is also vital to the ability of the U.S. to make nuclear power. The CFFF is one of only three plants of its kind in the U.S. The other two are in Washington state and North Carolina. About ten percent of the nuclear power generated in the U.S. comes from fuel made at the CFFF.
     In addition to its main business, the CFFF has a defense related mission which is to produce metal bars that are shipped to Tennessee and irradiated. The radioactive bars are then shipped from Tennessee to South Carolina’s Savannah River Site where tritium is extracted for use in the construction of nuclear warheads.
     McMaster University’s nuclear advisory committee supports the forty year license renewal. McMaster recently praised a plan by Westinghouse to invest one hundred and thirty-one billion dollars in the aging nuclear fuel factory. Rick Lee is the advisory panel chairman. He said recently that “We think the 40 years is most appropriate. Twenty years in that market space is not a very long time by refueling standards. Unless somebody has a really prevailing argument, it would be hard to imagine why it would be 20.’’
Please read Part 3 next

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Ambient office = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 109 nanosieverts per hour

Mini Bell mushroom from Central Market = 77 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Part 1 of 3 Parts
     The Westinghouse Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) in eastern Richland County of South Carolina makes fuel rods for commercial nuclear fission power reactors. It is one of the only nuclear fuel factories in the U.S. The South Carolina CFFF is considered vital to U.S. nuclear energy production. Despite a history of accidents and water pollution, following years of monitoring, the CFFF won a key approval last Friday to continue operating for another forty years. Federal regulators approved an environmental study that recommends that the CFFF southwest of Columbia be granted a new forty-year license. This virtually assures that the license will be issued this fall.
     The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had considered issuing only a twenty-year license because of the safety problems and water pollution that have occurred at the CFFF. However, in a federal notice posted on Friday, the NRC stated that its staff had reviewed a list of environmental issues associated with the CFFF and determined that the new forty-year license was justified.
     Westinghouse has been working for eight years to obtain a new operating license for the CFFF which sits on an eleven-hundred-acre site in eastern Richland County about four miles from Congaree National Park. Groundwater contamination and spills of radioactive materials are among the environmental problems that Westinghouse has had at the CFFF. These problems have only increased in recent years. Neighbors of the facility have voiced their concerns with how the factory has operated in the predominantly Black communities.
     Federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency, have added their weight to the chorus of concerns. Last year, the federal agencies said that the new license should not be approved unless an array of environmental problems was resolved. The Interior Department even suggested a twenty-year license instead of the requested forty year license partly because of multiple leaks and spills that have polluted the ground and ground water. The Interior Department oversees the nearby Congaree National Park.
     Westinghouse’s troubles were severe enough that the NRC took the unusual step of conducting two major environmental studies to determine how the plant’s future operations might affect the environment. The first environmental study initially recommended continued operation of the CFFF but was deemed inadequate. The second study that was approved last Friday looked more deeply at the potential effect the plant could have on the surrounding environment if it continues to operate for the next forty years.
The question has been whether the license should be extended for forty years as Westinghouse has requested or for a lesser amount of time because the environmental and safety concerns. Many of these have surfaced in the last five years. Some environmentalists and people who live near the plant have said that the new license should be for ten or twenty years if it is issued at all.
     Westinghouse has said that it is working to make improvements. Records indicate that it has had fewer problems in the last two years. The company said that it was satisfied with the NRC’s decision. In an email, Westinghouse said, “We are proud of the positive impact that the Columbia fuel fabrication facility has maintained for more than 50 years, and we remain committed to the safety of our employees and our local community. We are pleased with the NRC’s recommendation to renew the facility’s license for another 40 years and look forward to the agency’s final licensing decision for our plant later this year.’’
Please read Part 2 next

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