Thanks to Michael Keegan of Don't Waste Michigan for circulating the call-in numbers , below, as well as the link to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel's (ASLBP) ORDER (dated June 25th), scheduling a hearing on Wednesday, August 5, 2020, from 1pm to 5pm Eastern (12pm to 4pm Central/11am to 3pm Mountain/10am to 2pm Pacific) re: certain of Fasken Oil and Ranch/Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners' (Fasken for short) contentions in opposition to the Holtec/ELEA consolidated interim storage facility (CISF). Note that the call-in line is listen only, but it will allow the public, as well as the media, to listen to the hearing in real time. Please spread the word, including to reporters who may be interested. It's always good to let the ASLBP, and the rest of the NRC, as well as Holtec, know they are being watched by many concerned citizens, as well as the media.

Please note that Holtec/ELEA, as well as NRC, simply assume that Yucca Mountain, Nevada -- Western Shoshone land -- will still be the national high-level radioactive waste dump, hence the ongoing pretense that the CISF will be "temporary." (Ian Zabarte of Native Community Action Council, who serves on the END YUCCA DUMP Working Group, has made public comment in the Holtec DEIS proceeding, challenging this false assumption; he is a party with standing in the long-suspended NRC Yucca dump licensing proceeding.)

And along similar lines, Fasken filed a strong motion to introduce a new contention into the proceeding, on July 6th. It mostly has to do with high-level radioactive waste transportation risks, but also raises seismic, subsidence, and sinkhole risks to the CISF itself. See the July 6th motion, and two attached exhibits, posted online here: <https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber=ML20189A581>. While this newly proposed contention will not be discussed during the August 5th ASLBP hearing, to the best of my knowledge, I assume it will be processed by the ASLBP at some future date.

By way of context/update...Fasken is the last opponent to Holtec left standing in the ASLBP proceeding, after the NRC Commissioners' ruling on April 23, 2020 remanded a small number of Fasken's (as well as a small number of Sierra Club's) contentions back to the ASLBP for reconsideration. Sierra Club was again ruled against by the ASLBP recently, and so will now join the appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the second highest court in the land, just beneath the U.S. Supreme Court. Beyond Nuclear, having been rejected by the NRC Commissioners' final ruling on April 23, filed its appeal at the federal court on June 4th. Don't Waste Michigan, et al. (a seven-group national grassroots environmental coalition, including NISG of NM) filed its appeal on June 22nd, after its April 23 final rejection by the NRC Commissioners. To the best of my knowledge, Alliance for Environmental Strategies (AFES), which was also ruled against on April 23 by the NRC Commissioners, did not file an appeal at the federal court by the June 22nd deadline. Nuclear Assurance Corporation (NAC), a Interim Storage Partners consortium member company, targeting Waste Control Specialists in Texas, very near Eunice, NM, with another proposed CISF, dropped its intervention against the Holtec CISF some time ago.

Thanks.

---Kevin Kamps

Beyond Nuclear, radioactive waste specialist

Don't Waste Michigan, board of directors member

Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, advisory board member

(All three groups are official intervenors against Holtec in the NRC licensing proceeding, and are now petitioners in the federal court appeals as well)

Bridgeline for Public Fasken Oral Argument 8/5/2020

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