[NukeNet] Stop NRC Green Light for Yucca Dump

[Linda Gunter]

BEYOND NUCLEAR

Beyond Nuclear Bulletin 
June 27, 2008
Top Stories
Sign Petition to NRC to Block Yucca Mountain Dump
Background: In early June, the U.S. Dept. of Energy filed a license application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, seeking permission to construct and operate the still pending high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The NRC will now review and then docket this application, allowing only a small window for any remaining public intervention. Although the DOE application is more than 8,000 pages long with 30 million pages of supporting documents, the NRC contends it will docket the application in three months. Once docketed, a three- to four-year licensing proceeding would commence, ending around 2012, most likely with NRC approval. The culmination of this review comprises the biggest NRC licensing proceeding in history.
Our View: NRC is rushing its docketing review in order to launch the Yucca licensing proceeding before George W. Bush and his pro-Yucca Mountain administration exit the White House. But despite its huge size and cost – more than $11 billion to date that will likely balloon to at least $70 billion if the dump is built and operated – the DOE application and document collection is missing the most important pieces. These include: a final repository design; final national transport plan; final design for the "Transport, Aging, and Disposal" canister in which the waste would be “permanently” sealed; final EPA regulations on radiation releases; and meaningful treatment of Western Shoshone Indian land rights at Yucca under the "peace and friendship" Treaty of Ruby Valley signed by the U.S. government in 1863. Consequently, the NRC should not docket the application and should halt the Yucca licensing proceeding.
What You Can Do: Go to http://reid.senate.gov/issues/yucca_petition.cfm where you will find U.S. Senator Harry Reid's "Petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Reject the License Application for a Nuclear Waste Dump at Yucca Mountain." Please sign it, and circulate it to others for signatures.

Of Note
The French Nuclear Medusa: The French government agency responsible for radioactive waste (ANDRA) has announced that it is seeking volunteer communities to house so-called “low-level” waste dumps and has indicated at least 12 communities are very interested. However, the list of 3,115 communities that the agency queried is not public, nor the list of those allegedly willing to take the waste. Critics have demanded that the lists be released, fearing that any deals to take the waste have been made privately by community mayors with ANDRA and without consulting local populations. Mayors have received informational packets from ANDRA, which, according to critics, leave out the risks and hazards of taking the waste. In particular, no mention is made of the unfolding catastrophe at Asse, in Germany, where a mine in which similar radioactive wastes are stored is flooding at the rate of 12 cubic meters a day raising grave alarms about radioactive contamination.

Beyond Nuclear in the News
• Kevin Kamps and Alice Hirt were published in the Kalamazoo Gazette, regarding earthquakes risks associated with radioactive waste storage by Lake Michigan.  
• Linda Gunter appeared on three Connecticut radio stations talking about the perils of nuclear power and the connection to nuclear weapons.
• Linda Gunter’s letter to the editor decrying Sen. McCain’s plan for 45 new reactors appeared in the Chicago Tribune and the Springfield News-Leader.
• Linda Gunter’s op-ed, Unsafe in Any Hands, that argues nuclear weapons are as dangerous in the hands of nuclear weapons states as they are in the hands of terrorists, appeared on OpEdNews.

Beyond Nuclear on the Road
• Cindy Folkers and Kevin Kamps tabled at the annual Clearwater Festival in Croton-on-the-Hudson, New York.
• Kevin Kamps was a workshop leader and participant in the recent national radioactive waste conference for activists held in South Carolina.
• Paul Gunter met with citizen activists and participated in the NRC hearing in Port Gibson, MS regarding a proposed additional reactor at the Grand Gulf nuclear site.
• Linda Gunter will participate in the June 30 Peace and Security Initiative conference in Washington, DC.
• Paul Gunter will be a panelist at the forthcoming Center for Science in the Public Interest 4th annual integrity in science conference on July 11 in Washington, DC where NASA’s James Hanson is the keynote speaker.
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Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. Beyond Nuclear staff can be reached at: 301.270.2209. Or view our Web site at: www.beyondnuclear.org


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