Remove the radioactive wastes NOW! Protect Metro St. Louis' water and air from West Lake Landfill's radioactive contamination!

On March 4, 2015, Beyond Nuclear board member Kay Drey and colleagues in St. Louis published a pamphlet entitled "Remove the radioactive wastes NOW! Protect Metro St. Louis' water and air from West Lake Landfill's radioactive contamination!"

It includes a map, showing that the radioactive wastes at West Lake Landfill are upstream of the drinking water intakes for North County and the City of St. Louis, on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

The pamphlet urges readers to:

"Please go to www.moenviron.org to sign a letter asking U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt and Congress members William Lacy Clay and Ann Wagner to work to transfer responsibility for West Lake’s radioactive wastes to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers."

Update on July 17, 2015 by admin

On July 17, 2015, Sens. McCaskill and Blunt, as well as Reps. Clay and Wagner, did write the U.S. Department of Energy, urging the West Lake Landfill be redesignated as a FUSRAP site, and its radiological clean-up places under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Margene Bullcreek, leader of Skull Valley Goshute resistance to radioactive waste dump targeted at her community, has passed on

Margene Bullcreek. Photo by Gabriela Bulisova.It is with heavy hearts that we share the sad news that Margene Bullcreek passed on, on Sunday, March 1st, 2015. An In Memoriam has been issued by her colleague Ian Zabarte of the Native Community Action Council (NCAC), where Margene Bullcreek has long served as President.

As emphasized in a NIRS victory tribute, published in Sept., 2006, when the U.S. Department of the Interior effectively blocked the Private Fuel Storage, LLC high-level radioactive waste parking lot dump targeted at her community in Utah:

"The greatest commendations, of course, go to Margene Bullcreek and her organization Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia Awareness (OGDA), Sammy Blackbear, the Bullcreek and Blackbear families, and other Skull Valley Goshutes who have suffered tremendous sacrifices and painful punishments for many long years, for their tireless opposition to the proposed dump. Through it all, they have persevered and now triumphed. Their victory not only protects their own community and its future generations, but countless millions who live along the routes through dozens of states that were targeted for transporting the atomic wastes to Utah." (emphasis added)

Even before the nuclear utility consortuim PFS, LLC and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) targeted the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, the U.S. Department of Energy's "Nuclear Waste Negotiator" already had been, for nearly a decade. Margene Bullcreek learned from none other than Grace Thorpe how to defend her community, and did so successfully and tirelessly, for decades on end. (Grace Thorpe, who served as President of NECONA, the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans, passed on in April 2008. President Obama commended Thorpe's work in 2009 for Women's History Month.)

Learn more about the successful resistance to dozens of parking lot dumps targeted at Native American reservations by reading "Radioactive Racism: The History of Targeting Native American Communities with High-Level Atomic Waste Dumps."

And learn more about the long history of resistance to the dump targeted at Skull Valley Goshutes in particular.

Also see the 2001 NIRS backgrounder, written in the thick of the PFS fight, entitled "Environmental Racism, Tribal Sovereignty and Nuclear Waste: High-Level Atomic Waste Dump Targeted at Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah."

The nuclear establishment in industry and government have not stopped targeting Native American lands and communities for high-level radioactive waste parking lot and even burial dumps. But as Ian Zabarte has written, Margene Bullcreek "will be missed, but we will continue this work in the spirit she envisioned…until the end.”

Update on March 11, 2015 by admin

Skull Valley Goshute Margene Bullcreek was active in fiighting nuclear projects throughout Native American Lands, including the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Courtesy: Brenda Norrell EarthcyclesJudy Fahys of KUER/Utah NPR has reported on Margene Bullcreek's death and legacy in an article entitled "Remembering Anti-Nuclear Activist Margene Bullcreek."

NRC Commissioners to reveal votes on Nuke Waste Con Game Thursday, Feb. 25

Portrait of the current NRC Commission. Pictured from left to right: Commissioner Jeff Baran, Commissioner Kristine L. Svinicki, Chairman Stephan (sic) Burns and Commissioner William C. Ostendorff. (Please note, Chairman Burns' first named is correctly spelled Stephen. His first name is misspelled in the text, below this portrait, posted on NRC's homepage.)The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Electronic Information Exchange (EIE) Hearing Docket this morning served to following notice to intervening parties against old reactor license extensions, as well as proposed new reactor combined construction and operating license applications:

"NOTICE TO THE PARTIES IN:

Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant, Units 3 and 4, Docket Nos. 52-014-COL & 52-015-COL
Callaway Plant, Unit 1, Docket No. 50-483-LR
Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, Units 3 and 4, Docket Nos. 52-034-COL & 52-035-COL
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1, Docket No. 50-346-LR
Diablo Canyon Power Plant, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 50-275-LR & 50-323-LR
Fermi Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 3, Docket No. 52-033-COL
Fermi Nuclear Power Plant, Unit 2, Docket No. 50-341-LR
Indian Point Nuclear Generating Units 2 and 3, Docket Nos. 50-247-LR & 50-286-LR
Levy County Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 52-029-COL & 52-030-COL
North Anna Power Station, Unit 3, Docket No. 52-017-COL
Seabrook Station, Unit 1, Docket No. 50-443-LR
Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 50-327-LR & 50-328-LR
South Texas Project, Units 3 and 4, Docket Nos. 52-012-COL & 52-013-COL
South Texas Project, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 50-498-LR & 50-499-LR
Turkey Point, Units 6 and 7, Docket Nos. 52-040-COL & 52-041-COL
Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit 2, Docket No. 50-391-OL
William States Lee III Nuclear Station, Units 1 and 2, Docket Nos. 52-018-COL & 52-019-COL

The Commission has scheduled a tentative Affirmation Session for Thursday, February 26, 2015, 12:55 p.m. EST, that addresses the Petitions to Suspend Reactor Licensing Decisions and Reactor License Renewal Decisions Pending Issuance of "Waste Confidence" Safety Findings, filed on Multiple Dockets.

Note: This session will be publicly webcast.  Please use the link below to view the session.

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/webcast-live.html ".

As indicated by the bolded text above, Beyond Nuclear is directly, officially intervening against the 20-year license extensions proposed at Davis-Besse, OH (a Three Mile Island twin design), Fermi 2, MI (a Fukushima Daiichi twin design), and Seabrook, NH. In addition, Beyond Nuclear is an official intervenor against the proposed new reactor at Fermi 3, MI.

Thus, the NRC Commissioners will rule, on Feb. 26th, on a coalition of environmental intervenors' Petition to Suspend Licensing and Re-licensing of Reactors. That Petition was filed on Sept. 29, 2014, by some three dozen organizations, engaged in the 27 pending, individual reactor NRC licensing proceedings listed above.

As explained by Diane Curran and Mindy Goldstein, the attorneys representing the environmental coalition, "the Petition accompanied [the groups'] contentions challenging the NRC's failure to make Atomic Energy Act-required Waste Confidence safety findings in those cases." (Attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo serves as the environmental coalition legal counsel in the Davis-Besse and Fermi 2 & 3 proceedings listed above.)

The Petition, as well as the contentions in the individual proceedings, would form the basis for an appeal to the federal courts regarding NRC's 2014 Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel rule and environmental impact statement.

Although NRC Commissioners Kristine L. Svinicki and William C. Ostendorff voted in favor of the finalization of the Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel rule and environmental impact statement last year, the other two NRC Commissioners -- Chairman Stephen G. Burns, and Commissioner Jeff Baran -- were not yet serving in 2014. (The fifth seat on the NRC Commission currently remains unfilled.) See the photo, above left.

Update on February 26, 2015 by admin

The four NRC Commissioners (there is a vacany on the Commission currently) just held a 2-3 minute Affirmation Session. It was Webcast on the Internet, and open to public attendance in the room at their Rockville, MD HQ. The unredacted transcript is posted below, at the end of this update.

And here is the NRC Commissioners' MEMORANDUM AND ORDER, laying out their legal reasoning for today's rejection of the coalition's Petition, contentions, and motions.

They revealed that they had rejected the environmental coalition's Petition and contentions.

They then affirmed "Aye" that they in fact did vote the way they were being listed as as having voted.

Problem is, they don't clearly reveal that at Affirmation Sessions. Was it a 4-0 vote? 3-1? 2-2? (The environmental coalition would need majority support by the Commissioners, so even a 2-2 vote would result in rejection of the Petition and contentions.) As soon as Beyond Nuclear learns how each Commissioner actually voted, and if they included a justification in writing for their vote (which they sometimes do, but not always), we will post it here.

However, a number of colleagues, including Diane Curran, do think it was a 4-0 Commission vote today.

Within just a matter of less than 10 minutes, the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board panels (ASLB)) overseeing the Davis-Besse, Fermi 2, Ferm 3 license proceedings, sent a copy of th MEMORANDUM AND ORDER out to us, our attorney Terry Lodge, and our coalition intervenors.

This very likely means that the coalition will appeal to the federal courts, to challenge NRC's illegal behavior, yet again. Beyond Nuclear is represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge in three proceedings: two interventions against old reactor 20-year license extensions (at Davis-Besse, OH, and Fermi 2, MI). He also serves as legal counsel for Beyond Nuclear and environmental coalition allies at the Fermi 3, MI proposed new reactor fight. All three reactors are located on the Lake Erie shore. In fact, 30 miles apart, Fermi nuclear power plant and Davis-Besse nuclear power plant are visible with the naked eye, one from the other.

Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisenberg, LLP of Washington, D.C., and Mindy Goldstein of Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University in Atlanta represent the three dozen environmental groups, intervening against 27 license extensions and proposed new reactor licenses.

Unredacted Transcript

>> I call the affirmation session to order. We have
chairman Burns on the phone in the room. Madam
secretary I understand we have one item for affirmation
would you leached us through that item.
>> Yes, can you hear me okay
>> I hear you fine.
>> Okay. The Commission is being asked memory dumb in
order responding to a petition filed by several
organizations requesting the Commission suspend final
reactor licensing decisions pending its issuance of a
waste confidence safety decision. Petitioners have also
submitted companion filings proposing a related
contention together with procedural motion to reopen the
record and several proceedings the Commission has voted
to approve a memorandum and order which denies the
petitions to suspend and the related motions and
confirms the Commission's determinations regarding the
safety of continued spent fuel storage and the technical
feasibility of permanent spent fuel disposal in a
repository. With the Commissioners in it the refresh my
memory aif I were your votes
>> Aye
>> Chairs Burns affirm your vote
>> Aye
>> Thank you, that's all I have
>> Is there any other business?
>> No thank you for standing in
>> Good luck getting back
>> Okay. Thank you, everyone. We're adjourned.
>> Bye bye.
Event is not active

Urge President Obama to oppose burial of TransCanada's radioactive wastes on Great Lakes shore!

Successul resistance to TransCanada's Keystone XL tar sands crude oil pipeline must now shift to fend off the dumping of TransCanada's radioactive wastes on the Great Lakes shore!

As reported by the Associated Press, on Feb. 24th, President Obama vetoed Senate Bill 1, which would have rushed the immediate construction of TransCanada Pipelines' Keystone XL tar sands crude oil pipeline. Our friends and colleagues at 350.org called for a rapid response action at the White House, at 5pm, just hours after the veto. As we have many times in the past -- on tar sands, fracking, and other environmental issues -- Beyond Nuclear answered the call, and stood in solidarity with our allies. We have also joined a unity statement with a large number of other groups, calling on President Obama to reject TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline once and for all.

Take action against another of TransCanada's dirty, dangerous and expensive scheme: the plan to bury radioactive waste on the Great Lakes shoreline! Urge President Obama to block this insane proposal!

Take action on radioactive waste! Contact President Obama, your Members of Congress, and state/county/local officials!

What can you do about the radioactive waste risks facing our continent, and your locality? Contact your elected officials!

The White House

Please contact President Obama. Thank him for canceling the risky and astronomically expensive Yucca Mountain, Nevada high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) dump proposal: he has zeroed out funding for the project since 2009, and even ordered his Department of Energy (DOE) to withdraw the construction and operating license application submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Also urge President Obama to take action against Canada's proposed Great Lakes shoreline radioactive waste dump, as a growing number of resolutions across the Great Lakes region call for.

Finally, urge him to put a halt to the DOE proposal to ship liquid HLRW, by truck, from Chalk River nuclear lab, Ontario, Canada, to Savannah River Site, South Carolina. Liquid HLRW has never been shipped in North American history, and is unacceptably risky. The shipments are also unnecessary to begin with, and are proposed for no good reason whatsoever. The main driving force is SRS's hope to make $60 million on the project, as well as to keep its dirty, dangerous, and expensive reprocessing capabilities on life support -- facilities that should have been retired long ago.

Congress

Please contact your two U.S. Senators, as well as your U.S. Representative, regarding the issues listed above. Your three Members of Congress can be reached, by phone, via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121.

Urge them to block congressional Republican efforts (as by Rep. Upton (R-MI) and Shimkus (R-IL), attempting to revive the canceled Yucca Mountain dump project.

Also urge them to join congressional resolutions, in the Senate and House, opposing the Canadian Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump. The Great Lakes represent nearly 90% of the surface fresh water in North America, providing drinking water to 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations. If this proposed Canadian Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump is allowed to happen, it sets a very dangerous precedent continent-wide for burying radioactive waste immediately next to major surface waters and drinking water supplies.

Lastly, urge them to oppose risky and unnecessary shipping of liquid HLRW from Ontario to South Carolina. If these dangerous shipments are allowed to roll, they will also set a dangerous precedent for future radioactive waste shipments continent-wide, throwing even basic common sense caution to the wind.

Your State, County, and Local Government

Contact Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, for more detailed information on how these various radioactive waste risks affect your locality. You can reach Kevin by phone at (301) 270-2209 ext. 1, or email at kevin@beyondnuclear.org.

Yucca Mountain-bound trucks, trains, and barges would carry high-level radioactive waste and irradiated nuclear fuel on roads, rails, and waterways in most states (43 of the lower 48). Centralized interim storage facilities (parking lot dumps), as at Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas, would launch such Mobile Chernobyls, floating Fukushimas, and radiological dirty bombs on wheels, as well.

It is high time to educate state, county, and local officials about these risks, and work to prevent them.

Your state, county, and locality could also pass a resolution opposing such risks as the Canadian Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump proposal.