Sen. McEachin is taking the lead on an issue -- nuclear waste disposal -- that could be a major problem for Virginia starting in July 2008.

Low level nuclear waste is not something we like to ponder, rarely, if ever, thinking about where or how it is stored. In reality, Virginia has been spared this issue because our nuclear waste has been kept in South Carolina. In a compact of states, South Carolina had agreed to be the repository for the nuclear wastes of the region. But that is about to end. South Carolina no longer wants to play this role and in July of 2008 - in less than half a year - they will no longer accept our nuclear trash. Unfortunately, we do not have an alternative. We will either have to make complicated expensive arrangements to ship some or all of it to faraway places in Utah and Texas or determine an alternative solution.

      Most surprisingly to me, no one has really been investigating this pending environmental problem. Large scale nuclear waste, such as that created by power plants, can be stored safely on site because they have the facilities and experience in handling this material. The bigger problem is the small amount of waste created by hospitals, university labs, medical facilities and even shipyards that build nuclear powered vessels. As a Commonwealth, we could ask or perhaps even require all those various facilities to store their own waste, but this raises a host of potentially dangerous scenarios. Can we trust all these facilities to ensure that their nuclear trash will be stored safely, in compliance with all regulations and the latest techniques? Are we confident that storage records will be accurate and accessible so that in the future the waste will not be accidentally unearthed and individuals and places contaminated? If they choose to transport the waste to other sites around or out of state, how can we know that they will move it safely? Finally, can we be certain that the waste will be stored in a way that will keep it from the hands of those who would choose to use nuclear materials to cause harm?

Unfortunately, the federal government has abdicated a role in this problem and forced it on the states. Therefore, we in Virginia, as elected officials, must show the fortitude and determination to address this problem. I believe part of the solution needs to be to ask the federal government to take responsibility to ensure uniform regulations and safety and, at a minimum, to provide guidelines and direction to help us through this unsettling dilemma.

      I have introduced a bill that orders a study of the disposal and/or storage of low level nuclear waste. Disposal is certainly preferable to storage if that can be arranged. I hope this study will be a strong first step in preparing a long term comprehensive solution to this growing problem. The Department of Health will be empowered to conduct this study and required to bring the results back to the General Assembly on the first day of the 2009 Session. This is reasonably as fast as we can move on such a complicated, significant and dangerous issue. In the meantime, I would encourage all citizens and all those policy groups who advocate for a cleaner environment and a healthier Virginia to contact their legislators to encourage them to take this problem seriously and address it.

If you would like to speak with me about this or any other issue, my office in the General Assembly can be reached at 804.698.7509 or email me at district09@sov.state.va.us. Additional information about the General assembly is available on my website at www.donaldmceachin.com

P.S. See here for more about Sen. McEachin's bill, SJ 133.

I was planning on attending myself but work-related stuff came up at the last minute. grrrrrrrrrr

I had the exact same problem. It might be a useful idea/suggestion to plan on doing this same thing on the same day every year - the last Thursday in February (or something), so those of us who can will be able to ask for the time in advance.

Did the proposed Wise County coal-fired power plant come up?

we had an extensive discussion about it (unfortunately, I would have liked to).

So what did the Sierra Club talk about then?

only had a few minutes...wish he had had longer.  Mainly, we just met each other and talked about getting the message out using blogs.