Residents of a North Dakota County are putting up a fight over a deep borehole project they contend will be used for nuclear waste disposal.
Officials of Battelle Memorial Institute, the leader researcher and drilling partner Energy and Environmental Research Center of Grand Forks as well as the U.S. Department of Energy denied the charges raised at a meeting this week held by the Pierce County Commission in Rugby.
Commissioners weren’t even aware initially that the Energy Department had awarded $35 million to learn if mid-continental basement rock can safely store nuclear waste capsules by drilling 3 miles down. The site is 15 miles south of Rugby and hundreds of county residents attended the hearing to protest, according to the Bismarck Tribune.
“This is not a nuclear project, this is a science project,” professed Andy Griffith, deputy of nuclear energy at the DOE. He maintained any disposal will come in a consent-based process that DOE is developing to work with communities willing to accept such waste.
“It’s not going to take a genius to figure out what people want,” said Pierce County Commissioner Mike Christenson who didn’t like what he heard about the plan.
“There is no nuclear power here. Shouldn’t the disposal be where the waste is generated? We’ve done our share,” said Galen Mack, the Pierce County State’s Attorney.
Griffith responded by saying the government would not force the issue if that’s what the people wanted.
