When ENERCON Federal Services last year became one of four teams bidding to dig a 16,000-foot deep borehole as a test for a potential means of radioactive waste disposal, Outreach Manager Francis “Chip” Cameron thought of it as a mere research project.
“We made the mistake of walking into this, thinking it was going to be a straightforward science project,” Cameron said Thursday at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit in Summerlin, Nev.
ENERCON, which had teamed with DOSECC Exploration Services to bid on the Energy Department contract, was not prepared for the level of vehement opposition it would encounter for its proposed site in Quay County, N.M. – even though public opposition had already undone a prior effort under Battelle to find a borehole site in North and South Dakota. “We ran into a buzz saw right from the start of it,” Cameron said.
Foes of the deep borehole test project were quick to spread misleading or false information in order to sway public opinion, Cameron said. The ENERCON team spent much of its time trying to refute rumors that the test was really a pretext to import radioactive waste into Quay County.
“Our site was on private land” that was used for cattle, Cameron said. The Energy Department repeatedly affirmed the test would not involve real radioactive material, and that the hole would never be used for such storage, but could not overcome distrust of its intentions. Cameron noted that a clause in ENERCON’s lease agreement said no radioactive waste would ever be disposed on the site, he added.
“It illustrates how complex and controversial our work is,” when interacting with the public on anything concerning radioactive waste, Cameron said. The Trump administration DOE formally defunded the project in May; Cameron said he ordered a glass of champagne when he heard the news: “It was a tough project.”
