[NukeNet] Sign-on by Jan 4 to stop new HLRW dump

[Michael Mariotte]

Dear Friends,

 

This December we got wind of what appears to be a new "centralized
interim storage" site (AKA parking lot dump like PFS and the Yucca
"waste acceptance" swindle, and the MRS before that) under the guise of
GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership). We put it that way because
there is sound (whistleblower) evidence that this plan was in place
before GNEP was announced...and it involved the US Enrichment
Corporation's purchase of one of the largest nuclear waste cask-makers,
NAC International, and now a team that includes Washington International
Group, AREVA and Batelle. This plan has all the signs and signals of
being able to "roll" with or without GNEP as a cover -- though they
would still need Congress to change the law... the same law we helped
stop changes in throughout the 1990's -- the Nuclear Waste Policy
Act...and so is addressed to Congress.

Don't hear us wrong -- GNEP is a threat -- we can and will fight
reprocessing and support all 11 communities chosen by the US DOE to get
GNEP "study grants." Contact Don Hancock <sricdon at earthlink.net>
<mailto:sricdon at earthlink.net>  if your group is active in those
communities to sign a letter from people in those impacted areas. 

The letter below focuses specifically on the issue of centralization of
commercial high-level waste, and we hope that folks representing groups
concerned about this issue from all over will sign on. We don't want to
let GNEP be like the magician's scarf that distracts everyone while
quietly, below our field of perception, a new high-level dump is
established.

YOUR DEADLINE: please sign-on no later than 4pm (EST) on January 3 --
sorry for the short time frame!
WHAT WE NEED:  Group Name, Name of Individual representing the group,
city, state
PLEASE DO NOT HIT REPLY. Please send your information to: Mary Olson, at
NIRS' Southeast office: nirs at main.nc.us

Thank you!

NOTE to individuals not representing groups -- please consider using
this, or similar text and sending it to your member of the House and two
Senators, on, or after January 4.
______________________________________________________________________
The letter: 

 

January 4

Senate Majority Leader, the Honorable Harry Reid

Speaker of the House, the Honorable Nancy Pelosi

Senate Minority Leader XXX

House Minority Leader XXX

The Honorable Senator Voinovich 

The Honorable Senator Brown

The Honorable Congressmember Jean Schmidt

The Honorable Congressmember Hobson

The Honorable Congressmember Zak Space

The Honorable Congressmember Charles Wilson

The Honorable Congressmember Denis Kucinich

Senate Energy Committee Chair, the Honorable Jeff Bingaman

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair, the Honorable John Dingell

Senate Energy Committee Ranking Member, the Honorable Pete Domenici

House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member, Barton

 

Dear Member:

 As we begin a new year of unified work for the benefit of our great
nation, we ask your attention to a matter we find urgent. It has come to
our attention that the Department of Energy and private groups acting
under the names ePIFNI and SONIC are moving rapidly to bring our
nation's most dangerous radioactive waste to a rural community with
important cultural heritage in Appalachian Ohio.

This community has been named as a grant recipient under the Department
of Energy's new Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). We, the
undersigned groups, oppose GNEP variously on grounds of national
security, local security, degradation of our obligations under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, our responsibility for environmental
and cultural resource stewardship, endangerment of public health, and
because it will further hurt our stature of leadership in the world.
Thus it is that we protest the award of any grant under the GNEP
program. Nonetheless, we find that the Piketon site warrants immediate
attention.

GNEP is currently in the initial stages of program development, prior to
official engagement with the public participation portion of the
National Environmental Policy Act. News from the Piketon, Ohio area
reveals that a plan to move high-level nuclear waste (irradiated fuel)
from commercial nuclear power reactors to the Piketon facility is
already well developed to the point that expensive infrastructure
changes to the site for the accommodation of irradiated fuel shipments
have already been accomplished. 

 The plan to centralize high-level nuclear waste from commercial nuclear
power predates the GNEP proposal. The Private Fuel Storage plan on the
Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah was such a project,
until recently ruled inappropriate by the Department of the Interior.
Nonetheless, to do so under the auspices of the federal government, and
Piketon is a US DOE site, is not provided for under law.

 As a community - a family - of concerned citizens and organizations
nationwide, we work together to oppose centralized interim storage of
commercial high-level radioactive waste - at any site. As times goes by,
the values we share grow only stronger:

 

*	Concern for a scientifically sound, sustainable basis for
long-term disposition of radioactive waste (Yucca Mountain does not meet
this criterion) 
*	Concern for security of radioactive material and of any
community that hosts it 
*	Recognition that the risks associated with the transport and
centralization of irradiated fuel are only acceptable if moving the
waste will greatly enhance the security and long-term sustainability of
stewardship, as well as keep transport risks to a minimum 

 

To date, all proposals for the "temporary" centralization of commercial
high-level radioactive waste have not met these criteria. Today, the
ever increasing concern for security in our nation, all by itself, is a
basis to oppose moving high-level radioactive waste to a temporary site.
In addition, the storage site adds one more, even bigger "target," since
the operating reactor sites will continue to generate waste, and if
plans are approved, generate even more.  Temporary storage will always
dictate additional transport if, or when a permanent site is chosen.  If
no permanent site is found the temporary site will, by default become a
permanent dump. 

 It is a long history, over several decades, where all the so-called
"temporary" storage sites have targeted low-income, often Native
American communities, or lands sacred to Native Americans. 

 Interim high-level storage is falsely sold as a jobs program to these
poor communities, when the reality is that radioactive waste storage
drives away more economic development than it brings.

 Piketon is perhaps the worst example yet, near the very bottom of
average income in Ohio, in one of Ohio's richest and most sensitive
ecological zones, and at the heart of Ohio's complex of ancient Native
American earthworks in the lower Scioto Valley, right on the ancient
Scioto Trail.

 If we preserve the status-quo and store waste for the near-term on
nuclear utility sites, where it is generated, while not ideal, this at
least ensures that multiple, corporate entities in diverse locations
serve as interim hosts, and therefore collectively retain a stake in the
quest for a permanent resolution. We urge that resources be used to
increase safety and security for the waste where it is, pending a worthy
long-term disposition. Whatever long-term solution for high-level
nuclear waste is ultimately found, resources should now be focused on
finding it, not diverted into quick-fix schemes that will neither be
quick nor temporary, nor in accord with democratic values. Any solution
must meet the clear requirements of federal law which ensure public
access to information and public participation.

 We the undersigned oppose the Piketon centralized waste storage plan
and any plan to centralize high-level radioactive waste (irradiated
fuel). Shipments cannot be secured during transport; centralization of
this deadly waste merely adds one more problem, while resolving none. 

 We join with the people around the Piketon site in opposing this bad
plan, and urge your immediate investigation and action.

Sincerely,

  

Cc:       The Honorable Ted Strickland Governor-Elect of Ohio

Energy Secretary Bodman

US Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners ...

 

 

 

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