New Mexico lawmakers press Holtec on waste safety

The Santa Fe New Mexican has reported on NM state legislators taking a stand against the Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) targeted at their state. The article reports: Pending federal approval, Holtec would store some 10,000 200-ton canisters underground on a 1,000-acre desert facility "35 miles from the nearest human habitat," according to the company's website. The drums of waste would come to New Mexico by train. (emphasis added) That's an odd thing for Holtec to say. Beyond Nuclear's members and supporters, who have provided legal standing for our intervention in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing proceeding, live and work within just a few, to several, miles of the targeted site for Holtec's CISF; one lives just a mile away. In addition, countless millions of Americans, in most states, live along the road, rail, and/or waterway transport routes that would be used to ship high-level radioactive wastes (HLRWs) to southeastern NM. On Sept. 5, 2019, the former head of Environmental Justice (EJ) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mustafa Ali, warned on Democracy Now! that such HLRW trucks, trains, and/or barges, would themselves be yet another EJ violation, as they pass through countless low income, people of color communities. Such shipments would go on for not years, but decades. It seems that for Holtec, certain people just don't count, when there are many billions of dollars to be made -- albeit, yet again, at public expense! (Not to mention risk, and liability!) But it's not just NM state legislators opposed to Holtec's CISF. In June 2019, NM's governor, public lands commissioner, and U.S. Rep., Deb Haaland (a Democrat, one of the first two Native American women ever elected to Congress, in 2018), all spoke out strongly against Holtec. In addition, the All Pueblo Council of Governors did so as well, against Holtec as well as the Interim Storage Partners CISF at Waste Control Specialists in Texas, on October 21, 2019.  

 

Please help us stop this environmental injustice, dead in its tracks! Contact your U.S. Representative, and both your U.S. Senators. You can be patched through to your Congress Members' D.C. offices via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Urge your U.S. Rep. and Sens. to vote against any legislation that would authorize the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to take ownership of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at an interim site, without a permanent repository open. Such bills include the McNerney (D-CA)-Shimkus (R-IL) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, H.R. 2699. Its U.S. Senate equivalent is S.________, the discussion draft of H.R. 2699, that has yet to be assigned a bill number on the Senate side; however, U.S. Sen. Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, introduced the bill during a hearing on May 1, 2019. Another bill that must be opposed, along similar lines, is S. 1234, the Nuclear Waste Administraton Act of 2019, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). This major reversal of U.S. high-level radioactive waste policy, which would further amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended, would risk the proposed "interim" site becoming a de facto permanent, surface storage, "parking lot dump." DOE itself has warned that surface storage, with loss of institutional control over a long enough period of time, risks catastrophic releases of hazardous radioactivity directly into the environment, as containers fail, but are not replaced. Beyond Nuclear joins with hundreds of environmental and EJ groups across the country calling for reactors to be shut down ASAP, so no more high-level radioactive waste is generated. For the 80,000+ metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel that already exists, HOSS, Hardened On-Site Storage (or as Near-Site as is safely possible), is a nationwide environmental consensus. But HOSS is an interim measure, lasting only decades. A permanent geologic repository must also be sought, which is scientifically suitable, environmentally just, legal, intergenerationally equitable, regionally equitable, minimizes transport risks, etc. Learn more about CISFs, as well as high-level radioactive waste transportation risks, at Beyond Nuclear's website.

Ex-SNC-Lavalin exec’s trial hears of $10-million offer to witness for testimony

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin has partnered with U.S.-based Holtec International to form the consortium Comprehensive Decommissioning International.

Holtec itself also has bribery conviction, and additional bribery allegation, skeletons in its closet.

Despite this, Holtec has already secured the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rubber-stamp, to take ownership of the shutdown atomic reactors at Oyster Creek, New Jersey and Pilgrim, Massachusetts, for decommissioning and high-level radioactive waste management.

Holtec is also scheming to take over the Indian Point, New York reactors, as well as Palisades, Michigan, once those nuclear power plants shut down in the years ahead (Big Rock Point, an already decommissioned but still contaminated site also in Michigan, along with its irradiated nuclear fuel, would be lumped in the deal along with Palisades).

Holtec has also applied for a construction and operating permit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to transport 173,600 metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel to New Mexico for so-called consolidated interim storage.

New Mexico lawmakers press Holtec on waste safety

As reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The article reports:

Pending federal approval, Holtec would store some 10,000 200-ton canisters underground on a 1,000-acre desert facility “35 miles from the nearest human habitat,” according to the company’s website. The drums of waste would come to New Mexico by train. (emphasis added)

That's an odd thing for Holtec to say. Beyond Nuclear's members and supporters, who have provided legal standing for our intervention in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing proceeding, live and work within just a few, to several, miles of the targeted site for Holtec International's "consolidated interim storage facility." (CISF) One lives just a mile from the proposed CISF.

In addition to that, countless millions of Americans, in most states, live along the road, rail, and/or waterway transport routes that would be used to ship highly radioactive wastes to southeastern New Mexico. On Sept. 5, 2019, the former head of Environmental Justice (EJ) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mustafa Ali, warned on Democracy Now! that such high-level radioactive waste trucks, trains, and/or barges, would themselves be EJ violations, as they pass through low income, people of color communities.

Such shipments would go on for not years, but decades.

It seems that for Holtec, certain people just don't count, when there are many billions of dollars to be made -- albeit, yet again, at public expense! (Not to mention risk, and liability!)

It's not just NM state legislators opposed to Holtec's CISF. In June 2019, NM's governor, public lands commissioner, and U.S. Rep., Deb Haaland (a Democrat, one of the first two Native American women ever elected to Congress, in 2018), all spoke out strongly against Holtec. In addition, the All Pueblo Council of Governors did so as well, against Holtec as well as Interim Storage Partners CISF at Waste Control Specialists in Texas, on October 21, 2019.

Help us stop this environmental injustice, dead in its tracks!

Contact your U.S. Representative, and both your U.S. Senators. You can be patched through to your Congress Members' D.C. offices via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Urge your U.S. Rep. and Sens. to vote against any legislation that would authorize the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to take ownership of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at an interim site, without a permanent repository open.

Such bills include the McNerney (D-CA)-Shimkus (R-IL) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, H.R. 2699. Its U.S. Senate equivalent is S.________, the discussion draft of H.R. 2699, that has yet to be assigned a bill number on the Senate side; however, U.S. Sen. Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, introduced the bill during a hearing on May 1, 2019.

Another bill that must be opposed, along similar lines, is S. 1234, the Nuclear Waste Administraton Act of 2019, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

This major reversal of U.S. high-level radioactive waste policy, which would further amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended, would risk the proposed "interim" site becoming a de facto permanent, surface storage, "parking lot dump." DOE itself has warned that surface storage, with loss of institutional control over a long enough period of time, risks catastrophic releases of hazardous radioactivity directly into the environment, as containers fail, but are not replaced.

Beyond Nuclear joins with hundreds of environmental and EJ groups across the country calling for reactors to be shut down ASAP, so no more high-level radioactive waste is generated. For the 80,000+ metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel that already exists, HOSS, Hardened On-Site Storage (or as Near-Site as is safely possible), is a nationwide environmental consensus.

But HOSS is an interim measure, lasting only decades. A permanent geologic repository must also be sought, which is scientifically suitable, environmentally just, legal, intergenerationally equitable, regionally equitable, minimizes transport risks, etc.

Trial of former SNC-Lavalin executive hears how son of Libyan dictator helped company

As reported by the Canadian Press.

Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin has partnered with U.S.-based Holtec International to form the consortium Comprehensive Decommissioning International.

Holtec itself also has bribery conviction, and additional bribery allegation, skeletons in its closet.

Despite this, Holtec has already secured the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rubber-stamp, to take ownership of the shutdown atomic reactors at Oyster Creek, New Jersey and Pilgrim, Massachusetts, for decommissioning and high-level radioactive waste management.

Holtec is also scheming to take over the Indian Point, New York reactors, as well as Palisades, Michigan, once those nuclear power plants shut down in the years ahead (Big Rock Point, an already decommissioned but still contaminated site also in Michigan, along with its irradiated nuclear fuel, would be lumped in the deal along with Palisades).

Holtec has also applied for a construction and operating permit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to transport 173,600 metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel to New Mexico for so-called consolidated interim storage.

Risk of Transporting High-Level Radioactive Waste is a Real Halloween Nightmare: SEED Coalition Files New Legal Contention to Halt Dangerous, Unnecessary Transport

NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR For immediate release: October 31, 2019 Contact:  Tom “Smitty” Smith, Former Director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, 512-797-8468

Risk of Transporting High-Level Radioactive Waste is a Real Halloween Nightmare

SEED Coalition Files New Legal Contention to Halt Dangerous, Unnecessary Transport AUSTIN, TX -- An alarming recent federal report has prompted a new legal challenge to the licensing of a high-level radioactive waste dump in Texas. [Beyond Nuclear is forwarding this press release on to the media as a courtesy to the SEED Coalition.] The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board’s “Preparing for Nuclear Waste Transportation” report released in September details thirty safety challenges related to transporting spent nuclear fuel across the country, including travel through major U.S. cities. Private companies have applied for licenses to store the nation’s deadly high-level radioactive waste for decades at sites in Texas and New Mexico. Texas and New Mexico residents have raised concerns about the transport risks of this radioactive waste in public forums and in legal opposition to the proposed consolidated interim storage applications.  “The potential for disaster in transporting and storing the nation’s radioactive waste is worse than any Halloween nightmare,” said Karen Hadden, Executive Director of the SEED Coalition. “The SEED Coalition filed a new legal challenge based on a recent report to Congress that lays out significant issues that need to be resolved. Transport of high-level radioactive waste is too risky and current plans to haul thousands of tons of deadly waste across the country must be halted.”  The new report to Congress by the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board confirms that stored spent nuclear fuel can go critical.   “The report confirms that the massive transport of thousands of tons of dangerous spent nuclear fuel across the country is unprecedented,” Hadden said. “The nuclear industry wants us to believe that such transport is routine, but never has so much dangerous nuclear waste been moved on the vast scale proposed, an undertaking that would involve thousands of shipments over many decades. In fact, the report indicates that transport could require 80 years or more, double the time that WCS has suggested in their license application.” “Significant infrastructure improvements would be needed, and technological challenges are numerous,” Hadden added. Concerns about the radioactive transport include: - Some existing radioactive waste can’t be shipped without being put into new containers, and new container designs are needed that haven’t been developed yet.  - There is no technology in place to fully inspect existing spent nuclear fuel containers and the impacts of shaking and bumping of radioactive materials on railways are not yet fully known. - Cracked or leaking containers would have to be repackaged but the report points out that cost for even one repackaging facility would be a whopping $1-2 billion. “The NRC is considering licensing sites in Texas and New Mexico to store the nation’s high-level radioactive waste for decades, which could lead to unsafe de-facto permanent dumps,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, former Director of Public Citizen’s Texas office. “The need for extensive research and the technical hurdles are among many reasons that licensing of centralized storage sites should be halted.” Current plans would move tons of deadly waste to Texas and/or New Mexico, just to store it in a in a different location, needlessly creating risks from transportation accidents, leaks and potential sabotage. No progress would be made toward permanent waste isolation with this band-aid approach.  In fact, spending billions of dollars this way could stall the development of more robust storage systems and progress toward viable permanent disposal.  “The focus should be on isolating this waste for the long-term in order to protect all living things, our planet and our economy,” Smith said. The U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board report, the SEED Coalition legal filing and expert witness testimony by Bob Alvarez are available at www.NoNuclearWaste.org Another resource - https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Cities_Affected.pdf - has maps of 20 of the many major cities that high-level radioactive waste could travel through if this plan is approved [Attorney Wally Taylor, on behalf of Sierra Club's Rio Grand Chapter, has filed a similar motion in opposition to the Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, targeted at southeastern New Mexico, 39 miles from the Waste Control Specialists site in western Texas. See the contention posted here.] Karen Hadden Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition  605 Carismatic Lane, Austin, TX 78748 karendhadden@gmail.com 512-797-8481 -30- Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org.