Environmental coalition meets NRC's "Nuclear Waste Confidence" DGEIS public comment deadline

Environmental coalition attorney Diane Curran

(Mark Cooper of Vermont Law School, expert witness on behalf of this environmental coalition, has estimated that storage and disposal of irradiated nuclear fuel could add $210 to $350 billion onto the costs of nuclear-generated electricity in the U.S. In addition, the once-per-century replacement of dry cask storage across the U.S., assumed by NRC in its "Nuclear Waste Confidence" DGEIS, would add another $100 billion per replacement, Cooper estimates. Cooper asserts that NRC cannot ignore such "staggering" costs in its EIS on the costs and risks of generating irradiated nuclear fuel in the first place -- that is, approving new reactor construction and operating licenses, and old reactor license extensions.

Of course, such costs, risks, and liabilities associated with the "indefinite storage" of irradiated nuclear fuel at reactor sites would greatly complicate, and long delay -- perhaps forever -- the ultimate completion of decommissioning at nuclear power plants. In fact, a number of atomic reactors that have "completed" decommissioning -- such as Big Rock Point in MI, Maine Yankee, Yankee Rowe in MA, and Fort Saint Vrain in CO, just to name a few -- still store their high-level radioactive wastes on-site, in dry cask storage, with no end in sight. Another lingering issue is the remaining radioactive contamination of soil, groundwater, flora, fauna, etc., despite NRC releasing such sites for "un-restricted re-use.")

An environmental coalition of nearly three dozen groups, including Beyond Nuclear, has submitted comments on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) "Nuclear Waste Confidence" Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS). The coalition is represented by a team of attorneys, including Diane Curran (photo, left) of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg, and Eisenberg, LLP, Washington, D.C.; Mindy Goldstein, Director, and Jillian Kysor, Fellow, Turner Environmental Law Clinic, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; and Phillip Musegaas, Hudson River Program Director, and Deborah Brancato, Staff Attorney, Riverkeeper, Ossining, NY.

The coalition is also represented by a team of expert witnesses, including Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Takoma Park, MD; David Lochbaum, Director, Nuclear Safety Project, Union of Concerned Scientists, Chattanooga, TN; Dr. Gordon Thompson, Executive Director, Institute for Resource and Security Studies, Cambridge, MA; and Dr. Mark Cooper, Senior Research Fellow for Economic Analysis, Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vermont Law School, South Royalton, VT.

The environmental coalition's comments, as well as its expert witnesses' declarations, have been posted on the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) website, as well as at the bottom of a press release featuring the work of Dr. Cooper on the economic costs of irradiated nuclear fuel management. The coalition's comment and expert witness declarations are also posted at the NIRS website.

Curran, on behalf of three environmental groups (Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, Riverkeeper, and SACE), in alliance with Natural Resource Defense Council, as well as four state attorneys general (CT, NJ, NY, and VT) won a landmark legal victory on June 8, 2012. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that NRC had to carry out an environmental impact statement on its "Nuclear Waste Confidence" policy and rule, including the on-site storage risks of irradiated nuclear fuel in pools and dry casks. The Dec. 20th public comment deadline on the DGEIS is a part of that court-ordered process.

Experimental Saxton atomic reactor site released for unrestricted re-use by NRC in 2005

As reported in this 1998 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, the former site of the Saxton Nuclear Experimental Corporation's 7 Megawatt-electric, experimental atomic reactor has been declared re-usable, for un-restricted re-use by the NRC. 7 MW-e is only enough electricity for 100 homes.

The reactor pressure vessel was shipped by heavy haul truck, then rail, to South Carolina for burial in a ditch at the Barnwell "low-level" radioactive waste dump. Numerous other reactor pressure vessels -- including from Big Rock Point, MI; Yankee-Rowe, MA; and CT Yankee -- were buried at Barnwell before the dump's closure to 36 of 39 states which previously had dumped there. In recent years, only SC, NJ, and CT are allowed to dump radioactive wastes at Barnwell.

(In 2003, protestors -- including Kevin Kamps, now with Beyond Nuclear, along with Mike Ferner of Veterans for Peace -- were arrested for committing a non-violent civil resistance action against the Big Rock Point RPV shipment bound for Barnwell.

Years earlier, Citizens Awareness Network of the Northeast conducted a "Caravan of Conscience" tour from Yankee-Rowe, MA to Barnwell, SC, to educate transport corridor communities about the risks, as well as to apologize to the dump's "hosts" -- surrounding residents, disproportionately African American, an environmental injustice. Yankee Atomic "public relations" officials shadowed the "Caravan of Conscience," conducting satellite phone interviews with the media to rebut and counter CAN's work.)

Local residents, whose own children died due to leukemia, found a very high leukemia rate in the area's small population. The nuclear utilities, and even state government officials, scoffed at the findings.

Wikipedia has some additional information about the Saxton atomic reactor, including that NRC released the former SNEC site for unrestricted reuse, although questions remain about radioactive contamination, as from radioactive releases and leaks that went unreported for many years.