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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission assured Rep. Jim Matheson and other Congress members it will stay true to its commitment to see that depleted uranium can be disposed of safely in Utah and elsewhere. But the agency doesn't detail how it reached its decision to stick to its 1981 system, which treats depleted uranium as "Class A" waste, the standard category for the least hazardous low-level waste. Matheson, of Utah, and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., hope to find at least some of those answers in the thousands of pages of documents that they have requested from NRC and that are due next Monday.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says classifying large amounts of depleted uranium as a hotter type of low-level radioactive waste without further study would not provide additional protections to public health, safety or the environment. The NRC's comments come in an April 9 letter to Reps. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Edward Markey, D-Mass. The congressmen have questioned the NRC's March decision to regulate large quantities of depleted uranium as the least hazardous kind of low-level radioactive waste, known as Class A waste. Depleted uranium is different from other waste because it becomes more radioactive over time.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission assured Rep. Jim Matheson and other Congress members it will stay true to its commitment to see that depleted uranium can be disposed of safely in Utah and elsewhere. But the agency doesn't detail how it reached its decision to stick to its 1981 system, which treats depleted uranium as "Class A" waste, the standard category for the least hazardous low-level waste. Matheson, of Utah, and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., hope to find at least some of those answers in the thousands of pages of documents that they have requested from NRC and that are due next Monday.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been given more time to provide U.S. Reps. Jim Matheson and Edward J. Markey the memos, reports and other decision documents on the disposal of depleted uranium. Alyson Heyrend, spokeswoman for the Utah Democrat, said agency staff was scrambling to pull together thousands of pages covered under the information request made two weeks ago. The documents were due Thursday. "We think they are trying in good faith to meet the request," she said. Matheson and the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee chairman, a Massachusetts Democrat, wrote to the NRC March 19, demanding to know what's behind the NRC's decision to keep depleted uranium in the lowest-hazard category for radioactive waste. It's a regulatory status that one commission member calls a "loophole." The congressmen want to know who and what influenced the NRC's thinking.

"A rash of recent failures in the buried piping systems of nuclear reactors - including one at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station - has prompted three congressmen to ask the Government Accountability Office to investigate "the integrity, safety, inspection, maintenance, regulations and enforcement issues surrounding buried piping at our nation's nuclear power plants," according to a public statement Thursday. "Under current regulations, miles and miles of buried pipes within nuclear reactors have never been inspected and will likely never be inspected," said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. (who chairs the Energy and Environment Subcommittee) in the statement. "This is simply unacceptable. As it stands, the NRC requires - at most - a single, spot inspection of the buried piping systems no more than once every 10 years. This cannot possibly be sufficient to ensure the safety of both the public and the plant.""

"Rep. John Adler, D-NJ, and two other members of Congress have asked the General Accounting Office to investigate the condition of buried piping systems at nuclear plants, after a leak of water carrying traces of radioactive tritium were detected at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey and a similar problem turned up at the Indian Point reactor in New York. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection guidelines are not sufficient to ensure the integrity of that underground plumbing, which can carry cooling water for use during unexpected reactor shutdowns or diesel fuel for backup generators, the lawmakers say. "Under current regulations, miles and miles of buried pipes within nuclear reactors have never been inspected and will likely never be inspected,'' Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said in the letter he signed with Adler and Rep. John Hall, D-NY. "As it stands, the NRC requires - at most - a single, spot inspection of the buried piping systems no more than once every 10 years. This cannot possibly be sufficient to ensure the safety of both the public and the plant.''"