Meeting over proposed Erwin nuclear business relocation gets heated

With the future location of an Erwin business that treats low-level nuclear material hanging in the balance, company representatives, state environmental officials and others provided details on the proposal at a sometimes heated public forum Monday. "I am not opposed to your company," Margaret LoBue, who lives within three blocks of the proposed site, said during public comment. "What I'm concerned about is the location." "I understand the town's need for revenue, I understand … the need for jobs. I'm just not for that specific spot." "That spot" is roughly 14 acres currently owned by the Town of Erwin just off of Second Street – several miles from Energy Solutions LLC division Resin Solutions has operated for over 25 years. The company will have to vacate its current site, owned by Nuclear Fuel Services parent company BWX Technologies, by 2030 to make way for a new BWXT project there, but LoBue's opinion was shared by several people who spoke during a question and answer session. Town of Erwin leaders have for several months considered a deal to sell Energy Solutions the town-owned industrial site off of Second Street. Unicoi County's economic development director Austin Finch said a new facility on the site, for which the company would pay $750,000 and build a new facility, would significantly increase local tax revenue from Energy Solutions. Energy Solutions has said it hasn't found another feasible option inside Erwin. The estimated investment ranges from $30-50 million and if the total were $50 million in taxable buildings, land and equipment, the Town would net an average of almost $220,000 in property tax annually for the next 10 years, and Unicoi County about $307,000 a year. But the proposal has generated concerns within the community about safety and radiological hazards – and roughly 100 people were on hand for the forum and a question and answer session that followed. "Everybody being heard is the goal here tonight," Finch said. Concerned citizens "have the right to ask those questions and they have the right to understand what is going on in their community." But as a state environmental official, a University of Tennessee nuclear scientist and a state economic development employee laid out information, at several points a number of audience members talked over them. Brian Wirth, a UT scientist, explained federal standards related to radiation and the processes at Resin Solutions, concluding, "I would feel perfectly comfortable having this plant next to my house." That drew a chorus of disbelief from several audience members, some of whom also spoke over economic development officials and a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) official when they presented their information. LoBue's concern was a common one among speakers – even if Energy Solutions and its 40 employees are going to stay in Erwin and create the kind of tax revenue discussed, the site close to downtown isn't appropriate. "I appreciate you being here for all those years, but it was out there," said Pam Bradshaw, who owns a handful of downtown properties and expressed concern about everything from property values to cancer rates. "We're talking about putting it downtown." What the company does Resin Solutions treats what's called "spent ion-exchange resins" used in the nuclear energy industry, creating a solid end product that is then shipped to a waste storage site in the Western U.S. "Our goal is to stay in Unicoi County," Resin Solutions Director Chad Tipton told the audience. "We've been safe and compliant throughout the time here." Ryan Crihfield, TDEC's deputy director at the Division of Radiological Health, concurred. When downtown business owner Michelle Bouton said she'd found information to the contrary, claimed she'd been told she'd have to wait two weeks for public records and asked whether there could be real time testing results of Resin Solutions' environmental data made available to the public, Crihfield responded. He explained some of the reasons for delays, said TDEC couldn't require real time monitoring but didn't know whether another agency or the Town might be able to, and said he'd expedite some information that didn't have to be redacted. "I think that would create a lot of good will," Bouton replied. Ultimately, Erwin Vice Mayor Mickey Hatcher and five colleagues will decide whether to move forward with the sale, and Hatcher said he still had questions he may follow up with. "I think that's appropriate that we don't come in with totally fixed opinions," Hatcher said. "We have to be open-minded enough to get all the sources and consider them prayerfully in order to do the best for all of our people." The proposal could go before Erwin's Board of Mayor and Aldermen as early as its December meeting.