[NukeNet] Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors Introduced

[MoJo]

Rochelle Becker of Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility was also involved
in creating these Principles which was a great collaberative effort of
many groups - GOOD WORKS FOLKS!!!  Molly

For Immediate Release:             Contact: Michele Boyd (202) 454-5134
Sept. 13, 2006      	                     Robert Yule (202) 588-7703

Public Citizen Testifies Before Congress on Nuclear Waste Safe Storage

Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors Introduced 
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Michele Boyd, legislative director of Public Citizen's 
Energy Program, testified today before a House of Representatives 
subcommittee on the storage of highly radioactive and dangerous nuclear
waste from 
commercial nuclear reactors. At a hearing before the House Committee on 
Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, she
presented 
a plan developed by national and grassroots public interest groups to 
address the urgent need to protect the public from the threats posed by
the 
current vulnerable storage of commercial spent fuel. Ninety-four national 
and grassroots groups from 37 states have signed on to the principles thus

far.

Boyd outlined why nuclear waste should be stored on-site at nuclear 
reactors in hardened casks rather than money being wasted on a failed 
underground repository, dangerous and polluting reprocessing or off-site
surface 
storage. 

In her testimony, she criticized the Bush administration's "Nuclear Fuel 
Management and Disposal Act," which seeks to override public health and 
safety laws at the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada

and fails to address any of the flawed project's fundamental problems.
"The 
proposed Yucca Mountain site is unsafe for geologic storage of nuclear 
waste and the program remains mired in bad science, mismanagement and yet 
another design overhaul," Boyd said. Even under the DOE's unrealistically 
optimistic scenario, the underground repository would not begin receiving 
waste until 2017, and it would take more than 30 years to transport waste 
from across the nation to the site. The waste would have to be taken
through 
many highly populated cities and towns, with some crashes of the transport

trucks and trains inevitable. Meanwhile, the waste remains vulnerable at 
reactor sites.

Boyd also advised against President Bush's proposed Global Nuclear Energy 
Partnership, which touts reprocessing spent fuel as a solution to the 
waste problem. Reprocessing is highly polluting and expensive - the 
radioactive material from the United States' last experience with
reprocessing 
continues to threaten the environment and will require tens of billions of

dollars over several decades to clean up. The plutonium waste it produces 
could also be stolen and used in nuclear weapons or "dirty bombs,"
presenting 
a significant proliferation problem.
 
Boyd rejected interim storage proposals being considered in the Senate and

House FY2007 Energy and Water Appropriations bills. Centralized interim 
storage would increase the transport risks to public health, safety and 
security. It also would not reduce the number of sites where radioactive 
material is stored. Nuclear waste must be stored on-site for at least five

years to thermally cool and radioactively decay before it can be
transported 
off-site. Any operating reactor will have at least five years' worth of 
irradiated fuel - approximately 100 tons - stored on-site at all times. 

With the controversies concerning the building of this country's first 
permanent repository, the temporary sites themselves will inevitably turn 
into "overflow parking" for nuclear waste that may never be moved again. 
"Moving commercial irradiated nuclear fuel to indefinite 'interim' surface

storage at DOE or other sites would simply create the illusion of a waste 
solution," said Boyd. "But it would be far more risky than retaining it at

the reactor site where it was first produced." 

Instead of wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on a dangerous

reprocessing scheme, the flawed repository at Yucca Mountain and 
centralized storage sites, Boyd urged Congress to focus on improving the
safety and 
security of waste storage at existing reactor sites. She cited the Spent 
Nuclear Fuel On-Site Storage Security Act of 2005, introduced in both the 
House and Senate by the Nevada and Utah delegations, as a good basis for 
incorporating safe storage principles into law.

To read Michele Boyd's testimony, visit 
http://www.citizen.org/documents/TestimonyHouseWasteSept2006.pdf.

To read "Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors," visit 
http://www.citizen.org/documents/PrinciplesSafeguardingIrradiatedFuel.pdf.

###

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization 
based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
www.citizen.org.



 




- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Tori Woodard is a dear friend of mine who now lives in China.  She just got back from a 30-day trip through Mongolia.  The following quote is from an email to me after visiting a temple - 

"After we look at some particularly frightening gods, Muugii asks me
what my religion is. I shrug and say I don't have one. Her response
surprises me:  "Then you're free!"  

Mongolians understand freedom."

Molly Johnson 
6290 Hawk Ridge Place
San Miguel, CA  93451
Cell: 805 296-0524

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