[NukeNet] New transport maps show Southbound Mobile Chernobyl

[Michael Mariotte]

News from NIRS Nuclear Information and Resource Service

6930 Carroll Avenue # 340    Takoma Park, Maryland 20912

301-270-6477, www.nirs.org <http://www.nirs.org/>  nirsnet at nirs.org 

 

May 22, 2007

For Immediate Release 

Contact:          Kevin Kamps         301-270-6477 ex 14

                        John Sticpewich    828-675-1792

 

New Maps from Common Sense Campaign Reveal 

Another Cost of New Nuclear Power: Southbound Mobile Chernobyl

 

May 22 - Today 41 community-based groups nationwide teamed with Nuclear
Information and Resource Service and the Common Sense at the Nuclear
Crossroads Campaign are releasing new maps showing one set of likely
transport routes (road, rail and water) that high-level radioactive
waste (irradiated or spent fuel) would take from nuclear power reactors
to the federal Savannah River Site in South Carolina for reprocessing,
if that location is chosen under the federal Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership (GNEP). Eleven sites are currently under consideration for
GNEP; two in South Carolina. Implementation of GNEP would redirect the
transportation of this waste, previously assumed to target the flawed
and unsuitable Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.

 

Part of a study by John Sticpewich entitled "A Study of the Problems
With Transport and Reprocessing of Nuclear Waste in the Carolinas," the
maps were generated using Department of Energy (DOE) data and the
on-line DOE routing program, TRAGIS. "Credit analysts on Wall Street
have suggested that moving the accumulated high-level waste from the
reactor sites would make investment in new nuclear power more likely,"
said Sticpewich. "This report documents the huge tonnage of radioactive
waste that must be dealt with, the very high costs of transporting it,
and the potential for impact that such a move would have on hundreds of
communities along the way." John Sticpewich did this work on behalf of
the Common Sense at the Nuclear Crossroads Campaign based in Asheville,
NC. The maps and his report are available at:
http://www.nuclearcrossroads.org/secondreport.htm .

 

If implemented, GNEP would move accumulated waste from 75 sites in 33
states. Due to limited resources, the new maps show only a defined
"study area:" waste sites that are east of the Mississippi River, and
from the Carolinas, north. While routes are shown in all states east of
the Mississippi, those in MS, AL, GA and FL include only out-of-state
waste - the reactors in those states are not included as a points of
origin - though they would be under the GNEP program. 

 

"This case study of one scenario and a limited study area includes two
thirds of the nation's reactors. It is a good start on looking at the
impact of bringing the nation's high-level waste into the South," said
Mary Olson, Director of the Southeast Office of Nuclear Information and
Resource Service. "Another scenario we do not show is a possible plan
for this deadly waste to be centralized for storage at a "parking-lot
dump" -- a top candidate for so-called "temporary" storage is the
Piketon site in Appalachian Ohio" concluded Olson. Piketon is another of
the 11 sites being considered under GNEP. 

 

"NIRS coined the slogan 'Mobile Chernobyl' back when Congress weighed
shipping this high-level nuclear waste to Nevada to a parking-lot style
dump. It refers to the elevated risk of accidents or incidents that will
travel with this deadly waste if put on the roads and rails," said Kevin
Kamps, Nuclear Waste Specialist with Nuclear Information and Resource
Service. "The risk of terrorist attack means that these shipments are
potential dirty bombs on wheels or water," says Kamps. "The big news in
these maps is the water routes to SRS - the Great Lakes could be hit by
many hundreds to thousands of these shipments, along with rivers,
canals, and coastlines in every region." Although Yucca Mountain cannot
be approached directly by water, DOE proposed barge shipments for
segments of transports there as well.
 

"Coincidentally, Dairyland Power's intensely radioactive Genoa atomic
reactor pressure vessel shipment by train from LaCrosse, Wisconsin to
Barnwell, South Carolina for dumping in a ditch, is about to roll -
perhaps as early as today -- down the tracks, most likely via IL, IN,
KY, TN, and GA, the very routes identified in this new study," said
Kevin Kamps of NIRS. "This real-life shipment, happening right now, has
its own radiological hazards, but these are dwarfed by the many
thousands of high-level radioactive waste shipments that would follow it
in years ahead if South Carolina opens a reprocessing facility," said
Kamps.

 

"There are 32 new reactors moving forward, and of these 30 are in the
South," said Mary Olson. "In 2005 Congress started talking about
reviving the failed, unprofitable reprocessing technology - that would
bring the worst nuclear waste to South Carolina. This is a major shift
in 'the deal.' We were told that nuclear waste would not be a
problem-effectively it would be dumped on someone else! Now if GNEP goes
forward, more of the real cost of those new nuclear power reactors will
be clear: nuclear waste would stay here in the South and more would come
from all over the country - and possibly the world!" concluded Olson. 

 

Groups taking participating in the May 22nd release: 

Common Sense at the Nuclear Crossroads (Asheville, North Carolina);
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (Takoma Park, MD and Asheville,
North Carolina); Physicians for Social Responsibility of Western North
Carolina; Citizen's Awareness Network (Massachusetts); Green Party of
Onondaga County (New York); Central New York Citizens Awareness Network;
Syracuse Peace Council (New York); Don't Waste Michigan; Nuclear Energy
Information Service (Chicago, Illinois); Earth Day Coalition (Cleveland,
Ohio); Southern Ohio Neighbors Group; Citizen Action Coalition of
Indiana; Yggdrasil/Earth Island (Kentucky); Blue Ridge Environmental
Defense League; The Canary Coalition (North Carolina); Nuclear Watch
South (Atlanta, Georgia); Citizens For Environmental Justice (Savannah,
Georgia); Atlanta WAND (Georgia); Action for A Clean Environment
(Georgia); South Carolina Chapter, Sierra Club; HIPWAZEE (Columbia,
South Carolina); Environmentalists Inc. (Columbia, South Carolina);
Carolina Peace Resource Center (Columbia, South Carolina); Columbia
Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (South Carolina); Charleston
Peace  (South Carolina); Thinking People (Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina);
South Carolina Alliance for Sustainable Campuses + Communities;
Environmental Coalition on Nuclear Power (Pennsylvania); Energy Justice
Network (Pennsylvania); Don't Waste Connecticut; Connecticut Coalition
Against Millstone; North American Water Office (Lake Elmo, Minnesota);
Citizen Alert (Las Vegas, Nevada); Southern Nevada Group of the Toiyabe
Chapter of the Sierra Club; NatCap Inc. (Colorado); Coalition for a
Nuclear-Free Great Lakes (Monroe, Michigan); Citizens Resistance at
Fermi Two (Livonia, Michigan); Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy (Ohio),
Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee (Port Hope, Ontario),
Canada Voices for Earth Justice (Roseville, MI), Citizens for
Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (Lake Station, MI), Huron
Environmental Activist League (Alpena, MI). 

.

 

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