Fasken executive: High level nuclear storage could threaten area's oil industry

As reported by the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

Midland, TX resolution opposing CISFs in TX & NM, and associated transport risks

RESOLUTION IN OPPOSITION OF THE CONSOLIDATED INTERIM OR PERMANENT STORAGE OR DISPOSAL OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE IN WEST TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO OR THE TRANSPORTATION OF HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE THROUGH OR AROUND THE CORPORATE LIMITS OF THE CITY OF MIDLAND FOR SAID PURPOSES

Environmental coalition legally intervenes against WCS/ISP CISF, by NRC deadline

On Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, a coalition of environmental groups legally intervened in opposition to the Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners centralized interim storage facility (CISF) for irradiated nuclear fuel, targeted at Andrews County, Texas, by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's deadline.

Sierra Club chapters in Texas and New Mexico, represented by Iowa-based attorney Wally Taylor, filed a request for hearing and petition for leave to intervene.

So too did Toledo, OH-based attorney Terry Lodge, on behalf of a seven-group coalition, including: Don’t Waste Michigan, Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Public Citizen, Inc., San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, and Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition. Lodge also serves as legal counsel to an individual, Leona Morgan of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

See an 8-page SUMMARY of the Don't Waste MI, et al., contentions, here.

As part of its intervention, the seven-group coalition's legal counsel, Lodge, filed an expert witness declaration by Dr. James David Ballard, entitled "Interim Storage Partners: Transportation of the Inventory and the Storage of Highly Radioactive Waste Materials."

Lodge also filed an expert witness declaration by Robert Alvarez, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University, and former senior policy adviser to the Secretary of Energy and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment at the U.S. Department of Energy from 1993 to 1999. The expert witness declaration is entitled "Comments on the Application for a License for a Consolidated Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility by Waste Control Specialists LLC (Docket No. 72-1050)," which includes the following subject matter: Failure to Accurately Address Life-Cycle Costs; High Burnup Spent Nuclear Fuel; and Repackaging for Disposal.

(Both Taylor and Lodge, on behalf of the Sierra Club, as well as the national grassroots environmental coalition, have also legally intervened against the Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance CISF, targeted at southeastern NM, just 40 miles from WCS/ISP's CISF in West Texas.)

For its part, Beyond Nuclear legally intervened against the WCS/ISP CISF on Oct. 3, 2018. Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel includes Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran in Washington, D.C., and Mindy Goldstein of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

(Beyond Nuclear has also intervened against Holtec/ELEA's CISF in NM.

Beyond Nuclear has also filed motions to dismiss both the NM and TX CISF proceedings. However, NRC rejected these motions to dismiss, so Beyond Nuclear has been forced to engage in the NRC licensing proceedings.)

What can you do? Please submit public comments against the WCS/ISP CISF, to the NRC, by the agency's Nov. 19th deadline.

Update on November 16, 2018 by admin

See SEED/Public Citizen press release, here.

Beyond Nuclear to be in Chicago, hosted by NEIS, discussing radioactive waste transport risks

As announced by Dave Kraft, director, Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) of Chicago:

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 6:30 P.M.

Meet and Greet with

Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste specialist with Beyond Nuclear

TENTATIVE LOCATION:  NEIS Office, 3411 W. Diversey, Chicago

(check the NEIS website Calendar to confirm)

6:30 p.m. (light food and drinks)

As part of his Midwest Radwaste Tour, come hear national radwaste expert Kevin Kamps speak about the current proposals to license costly and unneeded “centralized interim storage” (CIS) facilities in Texas and New Mexico, Yucca Mt., and transport hazards of moving spent reactor fuel.

RSVP by Nov. 9^th at NEIS office:  neis@neis.org, (773)342-7650

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13

Jerome McDonnell (right), host of "Worldview" on Chicago NPR's WBEZ, interviews Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear. Photo by Dave Kraft, NEIS.Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist Kevin Kamps was interviewed on WBEZ's (Chicago NPR) public affairs program, "Worldview." The program is entitled

"America’s Nuclear Waste Problem Might Soon Be Passing Through Your Neighborhood."

[Play the audio recording, in the upper left -- 14 minutes long.]

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 6:30 – 9:00 P.M.

“CRAZY TRAINS:  A Panel on Shipping High-Level Radioactive Waste and Oil by Train”

See NEIS's flier for this event.

(TENTATIVE LOCATION):  NEIS Office, 3411 W. Diversey, Chicago

(check NEIS website Calendar to confirm)

Panelists to include:

• ·         Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste and transport specialist, Beyond Nuclear
• ·         Charles Paidock, train and public transit activist, formerly with U.S. EPA
• ·         Third guest TBD

Panel presentation and group discussion on ongoing plans by government and industry to continue to ship two of the nation’s most hazardous materials by rail all over the country.  Will address the perennial question:  “Is this trip REALLY necessary?”

Please RSVP by Nov. 12th at NEIS office:  neis@neis.org, (773)342-7650

NRC ASLBP likely to schedule Holtec/ELEA CISF licensing proceeding oral argument pre-hearings in January

Per its order released today, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel (ASLBP, just established by the NRC on October 31st), to preside over the licensing proceeding for the Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance irradiated nuclear fuel centralized interim storage facility targeted at southeastern New Mexico, has indicated it is likely to schedule oral argument pre-hearings in January 2019.

The ASLBP chairman, Paul S. Ryersen, ordered:

The Board will conduct a pre-hearing conference -- most likely in January -- to hear oral argument on standing and contention admissibility. We are considering where and how to conduct oral argument most efficiently. Possibilities include New Mexico, NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland (with the option of participating from other locations electronically), and perhaps elsewhere.

Beyond Nuclear has requested a hearing, and petitioned for leave to intervene, in opposition to the Holtec/ELEA CISF. Diane Curran of Washington, D.C., and Mindy Goldstein of Atlanta, GA, serve as Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel. (Beyond Nuclear also submitted a motion to dismiss the Holtec/ELEA CISF license application proceeding, but NRC has rejected it.)

So too has Alliance for Environmental Strategies (AFES, a NM environmental justice grassroots group), Sierra Club, and a coalition of seven environmental groups from across the U.S., requested a hearing, and petitioned for leave to intervene.

Nancy Simmons of Albuquerque, NM serves as AFES legal counsel.

Wally Taylor of Cedar Rapids, IA serves as Sierra Club's legal counsel.

Terry Lodge of Toledo, OH serves as the environmental coalition's legal counsel.