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Concern Builds Over Composition of Nuclear Waste Advisory Group; Packed with Radioactive Waste Generators

Ward Valley, CA - Statewide environmental and public health organizations today expressed concern about the composition of the state's new advisory group on radioactive waste saying representatives of radioactive waste generators outnumber representatives of environmental groups by three to one. The committee includes nine officials of organizations that supported the failed efforts to build a radioactive waste dump at Ward Valley. Two environmental groups and one tribe represent those that had opposed the site. Furthermore the key environmentalist experts on radioactive waste in the state have been consciously excluded. The panel was established to come up with an alternative to the now-abandoned Ward Valley nuclear dump project.

California may be on the verge of repeating the mistakes that led to the Ward Valley impasse, said Jonathan Parfrey executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles. "The Ward Valley debacle was caused in part by largely excluding from the decision making process those who would be most affected by a badly designed leaking nuclear dump. Now tasked with coming up with an alternative to Ward Valley we are at risk of starting down a similar road with a task force so imbalanced that consensus with the environmental community is impossible. But without adequate representation by those trying to protect public health from a leaking dump no solution can be found."

While excluding key public interest advocates on radioactive waste issues from the process the panel includes eight people whose institutions are associated with the primary pro-Ward Valley lobbying group CalRad Forum.

Susan Clark president of Americans for a Safe Future said Two representatives of environmental groups and one tribe facing off against officials of eight waste generators and another organization that has pushed for Ward Valley is not centrist, and is not fair to the people of California. The panel as structured can only make a workable solution difficult if not impossible.

Those organizations in addition to Physicians for Social Responsibility and Americans for a Safe Future critical of the composition of the panel include Natural Resources Defense Council, California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) and the Alliance for Survival.

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Membership on Advisory Panel on Radioactive Waste

Representatives of Organizations that Were Critical of Ward Valley (3)

I. Environmental Organizations
    -Mike Paparian of Sierra Club
    -Sam Schuchat (formerly of California League of Conservation Voters)

II. Tribes
    -Nora Helton of Ft. Mojave Tribe

Representatives of Organizations that Supported Ward Valley (9)

I. Radioactive Waste Generators

A. Nuclear Power Plant Operators     -Gregory Rueger V.P. PG&E (operates Diablo Canyon)*
    -Harold Ray V.P. Southern California Edison (operates San Onofre)*

B. Biotech Waste Generators     -Theodore Roth President/CEO Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp.**
    -Andrew Scherer Genentech*

C. Academic Waste Generators     -Richard Atkinson President UC* +
    -Albert Carnesale Chancellor UCLA* +

D. Medical Waste Generators     -Ed Penhoet current Chair California Health Care Institute*
    -Gary Stephany President Health Care Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties

II. Other Individuals or Organizations that Supported Ward Valley
    -Gloria Anderson League of Women Voters Environment Committee***

Associations with California Radioactive Materials Management Forum (CalRad Forum) the primary lobbying group of waste generators that had pushed for Ward Valley:

* institutional members of CalRad Forum; ** Board member of CalRad Forum; *** Ms. Anderson a prominent supporter of Ward Valley received a significant grant from CalRad Forum to prepare a pro-Ward Valley publication for distribution to members of Congress and the Legislature.

+ The University of California's record on managing radioactive waste at its DOE laboratories is marked by atmospheric venting and contamination of ground water. Lawrence Livermore Laboratories is an EPA Super-fund site. Los Alamos will spend $2 billion over the next ten years in restoring and de-commissioning.

[**Author Note: the remainder of the Advisory Committee is composed of past and present government officials: the heads of Dept. of Health Services CalEPA and Fish & Game; the retired Legislative Analyst (Post); and a retired Assemblyman (Sieroty). Also note Dr. Penhoet is the former CEO of the biotech firm Chiron; now a dean at UC Berkeley School of Public Health; the California Health Care Institute which he chairs is a coalition of biotech medical and academic waste generators.]

Jonathan Parfrey Executive Director,
Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles
1316 Third Street Promenade Suite B1 Santa Monica, CA 90401-1325
Phone: 310-458-2694 FAX: 310-458-7925 E-mail: psrsm@psr.org
URL: http://www.labridge.com/psr/

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Contact Maria Hall by phone: 310-458-2694 Save Ward Valley 107 F Street Needles, CA 92363 Phone: 760-326-6267 FAX: 760-326-6268 E-mail:swv1@ctaz.com Related paths: http://www.shundahai.org/SWVAction.html http://earthrunner.com/savewardvalley http://www.ctaz.com/~swv1 http://banwaste.envirolink.org http://www.alphacdc.com/ien/wardvly4.html http://www.greenaction.org

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