Subject: NRC grants hearing about burying Shieldalloy slag: By Daniel Walsh Press staff writer; The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted a formal hearing on a controversial plan to bury radioactive slag in Newfield, Gloucester County. The NRC acknowledged state environmental regulators’ concerns about effects on groundwater around the site where Shieldalloy wants to bury the slag that accrued over the company’s 40 years of operation. Department of Environmental Protection officials expressed fears that the buried slag would leach into groundwater supplies. The DEP also has called for the hearing to address 16 other environmental issues, but the NRC has not reviewed them yet. Until the federal agency does, a date wont’ be set, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said. Shieldalloy began decommissioning its plant more than five years ago, but the fate of the slag pile on its property has drawn the most scrutiny. The company says burying the radioactive slag on-site is the best solution, estimating it to cost $30 million. The company claims the radioactivity exposure to people would be minimal, less than a third of a percent of what the average person takes in during a full year. State and federal regulators have pushed Shieldalloy to transport the slag to a facility in Utah. Shieldalloy claims the plan will cost $55 million, but a representative for the Utah facility puts the figure below $40 million.