By Scott Sonner Associated Press
Saturday, July 10, 2021
RENO — The U.S. Energy Department has agreed to pay Nevada $65,000 as reimbursement for costs incurred after the government mislabeled and mischaracterized low-level radioactive waste that was shipped to a site north of Las Vegas for more than five years.
The settlement agreement announced Thursday also certifies that numerous changes have been made to prevent unapproved waste from being shipped to the Nevada National Security Site, state and federal officials said.
Then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry notified Gov. Steve Sisolak in July 2019 that 33 packages of unapproved waste were sent in 10 shipments to the site from 2013-18 from DOE's National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
His predecessor also ordered a department-wide assessment of its procedures and practices for packaging and shipping radioactive waste.
The waste was unrelated to weapons-grade plutonium DOE secretly trucked to the same site in 2018 — part of a two-year-long court battle that resulted in a separate settlement last summer.
Nevada Environmental Protection Administrator Greg Lavato praised the new agreement.
"Although DOE's unapproved waste disposal was an unfortunate misstep, we are thankful that this experience has helped lead the way to significant improvements that will further protect public health and the natural environmental for generals to come," he said.
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