Vigilance needed to block federal funding for Yucca dump

Yucca Mountain, NevadaCongressional Republicans, such as U.S. Rep. Fred Upton from southwestern Michigan, have been trying hard to attach a rider to year-end budget legislation to keep the federal government operational, that would fund Yucca Mountain, Nevada (see photo, left) high-level radioactive waste dump licensing proceedings, to the tune of $60 million. Yucca is Western Shoshone Indian land, so the dump would not only illegally violate the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863, it would also be an environmental injustice. However, the U.S. Senate's Continuing Resolution (CR), passed yesterday, contains no such Yucca dump funding. If the U.S. House passes the Senate's CR, and President Trump signs it into law, then no Yucca dump funding would be added, at this time at least. But that's a big if -- the latest news at press time reports that Trump appears to oppose signing the legislation, and U.S. House right wingers are either AWOL (having lost their re-elections, they just left D.C.), or excoriating Trump for even considering signing it. 

 

Meanwhile, Trump's Energy Secretary, Rick Perry, appears to be doing some creative accounting, trying to identify unspent funding across the vast Department of Energy, to put towards Yucca dump licensing -- to the tune of $120 million worth. When it comes to radioactive waste transportation, we all live in Nevada. 44 states, many major cities, and the vast majority of U.S. congressional districts, would be traversed by high-level radioactive waste truck and train shipments (see 2017 entries), as well as surface water barge shipments. Please take action. Contact both your U.S. Senators, and your U.S. Rep., and urge that they block funding for the wasteful and dangerous Yucca dump. You can call their D.C. offices via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Learn more at our Yucca Mountain website section.

Public has till Jan. 9 to comment on DOE proposal to abandon high-level radioactive wastes in situ

In response to a request by 76 environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has granted until January 9, 2019 for the public to comment on the agency's proposal to deregulate high-level radioactive wastes, and allow for their abandonment in situ, at such places as Hanford Nuclear (Weapons) Reservation on the Columbia River in Washington State, the West Valley reprocessing facility upstream of the Great Lakes in New York, etc.

For more info., including instructions on how to submit comments, see DOE's Federal Register Notice. Sample comments you can use to prepare your own will be posted here, at the top of Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste website section, ASAP.

Update on December 13, 2018 by admin

Here is a bit more background:

Hazardous High-Level Radioactive Waste Becomes So-Called "Low-Level" with the Orwellian Stroke of a Pen

The Trump Department of Energy has proposed linguistic de-toxification for some of the most highly radioactive hazardous wastes in the country, such as sludge in underground storage tanks at Hanford Nuclear (Weapons) Reservation in Washington State. In other words, in situ abandonment of high-level radioactive waste, which will eventually leak into the environment, to flow downstream, blow downwind, and harm people, up the food chain, and down the generations.

DOE got away with this at Savannah River Site, South Carolina and Idaho National Lab beginning in 2004, thanks to the dirty work of U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC). But now DOE is attempting to extend the dangerous practice to Hanford, Washington and West Valley, New York, the latter putting Lakes Erie and Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River -- drinking water for many millions in the U.S., Canada, and Native American First Nations -- at high risk. Anti-nuclear activists are working hard to prevent this from happening.

Update on December 13, 2018 by admin

Here is news coverage on this issue:

Dec. 10, 2018

Associated Press -"Trump plan to reclassify nuke waste alarms environmentalists";

Nov. 29, 2018 

• Bloomberg - Plan to Leave Buried Nuclear Bomb Waste Underground Draws Fire - Ari Natter;

Nov. 20, 2018

The State - Wyden: Public needs more time to study nuke waste proposal - The Associated Press;

Nov. 19, 2018

Tri-City Herald - U.S. senator joins nationwide call for caution on Hanford waste change - By Annette Cary;

Nov. 9, 2018

Carlsbad Current-Argus - Nuclear host communities weigh in on waste characterization - Adrian C Hedden;

Dec. 14, 2018

• Moscow-Pullman Daily News - Our View: Hanford's clean-up efforts not a place to save money - Josh Babcock
• Vancouver Columbian - In Our View: Feds, Clean up Hanford Mess - Federal Government Must Stop Shirking Its Responsibilities At Nuclear Reservation

EnviroNews/DC Bureau

Update on December 13, 2018 by admin

Check out these warnings from Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, re: the high-risk of abandonment, in situ, of high-level radioactive waste sludge, as so-called "Waste Incidental to Reprocessing," WIR -- in other words, so-called "low-level" radioactive waste:

• Nuclear Dumps by the Riverside: Threats to the Savannah River from Radioactive Contamination at the Savannah River Site March, 2004

• What the DOE Knows it Doesn’t Know about Grout October, 2004

Such warnings were ignored by the U.S. Senate in mid-2004, when it voted to designate high-level radioactive waste sludge at Savannah River Site, SC and Idaho National Lab as WIR, allowing its grouting in place, and abandonment in situ.

Update on January 3, 2019 by admin

Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge has published an op-ed in the Seattle Times.

Update on January 3, 2019 by admin

NIRS has put out an action alert entitled "Don't Let DOE Sweep Nuclear Waste Under the Rug!" Please fill out the NIRS webform and submit it to DOE ASAP!

Update on January 7, 2019 by admin

Updated - Monday, January 07, 2019

Tri-City Herald - Feds say some Hanford radioactive waste is not so dangerous. Oregon disagrees - By Annette Cary

Update on January 8, 2019 by admin

Updated - Tuesday, January 08, 2019

• The Washington Post - State of Washington opposes federal nuke waste proposal - By Nicholas K. Geranios, AP
• KOMO News - State opposes federal plan to reclassify Hanford nuclear waste - By Associated Press
• Tri-City Herald - Feds are downplaying the dangers of Hanford radioactive waste, says Gov. Inslee - By Annette Cary

Update on January 9, 2019 by admin

• KOMO News - State opposes federal plan to reclassify Hanford nuclear waste - By Associated Press [Jan. 8, 2018]

Update on January 9, 2019 by admin

Carolyn Bower, a retired reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, submitted public comments to DOE, urging that high-level radioactive waste NOT be deregulated and abandoned in situ, to eventually leak into the environment, harming people downstream, downwind, up the food chain, and down the generations.

Three decades ago, Bower wrote about the history of uranium processing and the legacy of radioactive wastes in the St. Louis region.

In 2015, Bower teamed up with Beyond Nuclear board of directors president, Kay Drey, to publish a pamphlet about the risks of illegally dumped Manhattan Project radioactive wastes at West Lake Landfill in metro St. Louis, in the floodplain of the Missouri River.

Update on January 9, 2019 by admin

Mining Awareness has published an alert and backgrounder.

Update on January 9, 2019 by admin

• Updated - Wednesday, January 09, 2019
• Antelope Valley Press - Washington opposes nuke waste proposal
• The Independent - Trump administration wants to reclassify leaking nuclear waste to avoid cleaning it up, say officials - Josh Gabbatiss, Science Correspondent

Update on January 10, 2019 by admin

Barbara Warren of Citizens' Environmental Coalition in New York State has circulated the 

FINAL LETTER TO DOE regarding High Level Waste at West Valley

submitted by a coalition of 42 organizations (including Beyond Nuclear), to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), re: its proposed "re-interpretation" (gutting) of regulations applicable to high-level radioactive waste storage, management, and disposal.

The letter focused on the catastrophic impacts that would unfold at the long-closed (but badly contaminated) West Valley, NY reprocessing facility, if DOE goes forward with its deregulation of high-level radioactive waste. Not only New York State defenders of Lakes Erie and Ontario endorsed the coalition comments, but so too did Great Lakes protectors across the Basin.

Update on January 31, 2019 by admin

• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - "Incidental" nuclear waste: reconceiving a problem won't make it go away - By Allison Macfarlane

Radioactive Waste Is Coming through Your Town -- Unless YOU Help Stop It!

Rail-sized cask shipment of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuelSo says an action alert by Public Citizen.

Please help us generate a large number of quality public comments to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in opposition to a 40,000 metric ton irradiated nuclear fuel centralized interim storage facility (CISF) proposed by Interim Storage Partners (ISP) at Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Andrews County, West Texas. NRC's deadline for public comments on environmental scoping has been extended to November 19th.

The Public Citizen web form linked above is a quick and easy way to do so, and so is the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) web form, linked here.

Beyond Nuclear has also prepared several sets of longer versions of sample comments, each addressing different aspects of the risks involved with the WCS/ISP CISF, which you can use to help write your own, and has provided instructions on how to do so, all posted here.

To get an idea of the road, rail, and waterway routes that would be used, in most states, many major cities, and the vast majority of U.S. congressional districts nationwide, see maps and analyses prepared by the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects in the context of Yucca Mountain-bound shipments (the further from the American Southwest the highly radioactive waste originates, the more similar to identical the routes will be, whether bound for Yucca Mtn., NV, or the TX/NM borderlands). Barges on surface waters in many states are also in play, as revealed by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2002, with additional potential barge routes revealed by DOE as recently as late 2017. Many, to most, to all of these routes could well be in play, with shipments bound for the WCS/ISP CISF, unless we stop them! WCS even included a map in its license application documents to NRC, showing that most mainline rail in the Lower 48 is also in play. Public Citizen's Texas Office, and SEED Coalition, have also hammered out a best guess map of transport routes to WCS -- forced to do so, because WCS is being so obscure about what the routes actually will be!

Please take action (do one, two, or even all three of the options above -- there is no limit to the number of comments an individual can submit to NRC). And please help spread the word about this important action alert!

To learn more about the WCS/ISP CISF, visit Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage and Waste Transportation website sections.

76 groups request 120-day extension to public comment period on scheme to abandon high-level radioactive wastes in situ

Beyond Nuclear has joined with 75 other environmental groups -- from national to grassroots, representing many states -- to demand 120 more days during which to comment on the U.S. Department of Energy's proposal to linguistically detoxify high-level radioactive waste, into low-level radioactive waste. This would allow DOE to abandon in situ large quantities of forever hazardous high-level radioactive waste, which would then leak out into the broader environment over time, to harm humans and other living things. Under current law, high-level radioactive wastes must be cleaned up, and removed for permanent disposal in a deep geologic repository.

Sites that could be impacted by DOE's dangerous scheme include Hanford, WA and West Valley, NY, as well as others.

See the environmental coalition's letter to DOE, here.

Update on December 3, 2018 by admin

In response to the 76-group environmental coalition's request for a 120-day extension, DOE is giving only an additional 30 days.

This will be announced in Dec. 4th's Federal Register: "DOE is extending the public comment period for 30 days, ending on January 9, 2019."

Update on December 4, 2018 by admin

Here is a link to the Federal Register Notice, announcing the extension of the public comment deadline till Jan. 9, 2019.

Nuclear Free Future: Vermont Yankee Entergy Sale = Consequences

Watch Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste watchdog, Kevin Kamps, on Channel 17, TownMeeting Television, cable access is Burlington, VT. He was hosted by Margaret Harrington on her show, "Nuclear Free Future." Watch the 35-minute interview at this link.

Description

Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear talks with host Margaret Harrington about the consequences of the pending Vermont Yankee Entergy Nuclear Power Plant sale to Northstar. The US Regulatory Commission has approved the transfer of the license to the NY company, but the Vermont Public Utility Commission must rule on the sale before the deal can close. A Northstar accelerated decommissioning project could clean up the Vermont site in less than a decade. Kevin Kamps, the Radioactive Waste Watchdog for Beyond Nuclear, takes into account Northstar’s nuclear waste plans involving Waste Control Specialists and the insurance and financing for the job.