Suggested Environmental Scoping talking points on NRC's "Nuke Waste Con Game" webinars, Dec. 5 & 6

SUGGESTED ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING TALKING POINTS WITH WHICH TO MAKE PUBLIC COMMENT ON NRC’S “NUCLEAR WASTE CONFIDENCE” (NRC WEBINARS DECEMBER 5TH AND 6TH)

PROCESS POINTS

NRC’s Oct. 26, 2012 Federal Register Notice announcing the public comment opportunity on its scoping proceeding in the lead up to a court-ordered Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on its Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule is legally deficient. It does not clearly describe the proposed federal action, nor the preferred alternative(s). Due to those fatal legal flaws, the Federal Register Notice must be withdrawn, corrected, and re-issued. In the meantime, this proceeding must be suspended by NRC, and the allotted time for public comments must be re-started from the beginning. (For more information, click on this link.)

The time frame for making public comment (October 26, 2012 to January 2, 2013) is absurdly short. A six-month time period for making public comments is more reasonable. The public comment deadline should be significantly extended.

A single in-person hearing (Nov. 14^th at NRC HQ in Rockville, MD), and a mere handful of webinars, is far from enough. In-person public comment meetings should be held in every nuclear power plant community, supplemented each time with the remote webinar/teleconference participation option for those unable to attend in person . At the bare minimum, in-person public comment meetings should be held in each region of the country.

Also, NRC should stop rushing this environmental impact statement process. Just last year, NRC staff estimated it would take 7 years to do a quality job on an EIS. But now, NRC is rushing the entire process in just 2 years. NRC should extend comment deadlines, and hold public comment periods in every atomic reactor community, to do a comprehensive, high quality EIS.

SUBSTANCE POINTS

No more NRC licenses enabling atomic reactors to generate high-level radioactive waste.

Urge NRC to include in its EIS scope the preferred alternative of the agency not approving any more new reactor combined Construction and Operating License Applications (COLA), nor approving any more old reactor 20-year license extensions. That way, no more high-level radioactive waste, for which there is no solution after 70 years of splitting atoms, will be generated. In short, STOP MAKING IT! The only safe, sound solution for high-level radioactive waste is to not make it (or, in NRC's case, allow it to be made) in the first place!

For wastes that already exist, urge NRC to require Hardened On-Site Storage.

For wastes that already exist, urge NRC to include Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS, a phrase coined by Dr. Arjun Makhijani of IEER in 2002) as the preferred alternative. High-level radioactive waste must be transferred out of water pools, at risk of catastrophic radioactivity releases in the event of a loss of cooling and consequent radioactive waste inferno. But on-site dry cask storage must be significantly upgraded. Dry casks must be designed and fabricated well, with full quality assurance. They must be designed to withstand terrorist attack (as by camouflage, fortifications, and adequate spacing in between casks), to safeguard against accidents, and to prevent radioactivity leakage into the environment for the decades or centuries the wastes will be stuck at the reactor sites. (In 2003, Dr. Gordon Edwards of IRSS published a report, commissioned by Citizens Awareness Network, entitled "Robust Storage." See the executive summary of this report, including an illustration of a "robust storage" design for dry casks, by clicking this link. Also see the Statement of Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors, signed by nearly 200 environmental organizations.)

The risks of pool fires must be considered in this EIS. The precarious situation at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 --where a 7.0 earthquake could cause the complete collapse of the reactor building -- risks 135 tons of irradiated fuel catching fire, and releasing ten times the radioactive cesium-137 as was released by the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, directly into the environment. This would dwarf the radioactivity released thus far by the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. But pools at most U.S. atomic reactors contain several times more high-level radioactive waste than does Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, meaning the potential catastrophes downwind, downstream, up the food chain, and down the generations would be even worse here in the event of a pool fire, whether caused by a sudden drain down (due to an earthquake, heavy load drop, terrorist attack, etc.) or a slower motion boil down (due to loss of off-site electricity, whether due to a natural disaster such as a hurricane, an intentional attack, a reactor accident causing abandonment of the nuclear power plant site, etc.).

Radioactivity leaks from storage pools – into soil, groundwater, and surface waters – should also be included in the EIS scope. After all, leaks from pools have already occurred at more than a half-dozen nuclear sites across the U.S., such as from Indian Point into groundwater which then flows into the Hudson River, not far upstream from New York City.

Both industry and NRC whistleblowers have identified major quality assurance violations with current U.S. dry cask storage design and fabrication. These QA violations must be corrected for dry cask storage systems before they can be considered for use in Hardened On-Site Storage.

The many problems that have occurred over the years and decades with dry cask storage – from explosions, to leaks, to design and fabrication flaws, as well as security vulnerabilities -- must be included in the EIS scope, and preferred alternatives identified, such as HOSS.

Seismic risks to dry cask storage – such as Palisades’ violation of NRC earthquake safety regulations, as well as the damage done to North Anna’s dry cask storage by the August 23, 2011 earthquake – must also be included in the EIS.

For more background information, as well as additional ideas for talking points, please click on this link.

Prepared on December 4, 2012 by Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Beyond Nuclear, kevin@beyondnuclear.org, (240) 462-3216, www.beyondnuclear.org. 

Update on December 5, 2012 by admin

See S&P Global/Platts coverage -- an article by Elaine Hiruro entitled "Nuclear foe says no-reactor option should be top choice in NRC waste rule" -- published on Dec. 5, 2012.

Red Gate Woods: History's First Radioactive Dust Bin

"CAUTION -- DO NOT DIG": stone marker at Red Gate Woods, marking field where Fermi's radioactive wastes are buriedAt the request of the organizing committee for the "Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High: Ending the Nuclear Age" conference in Chicago this weekend, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps wrote a backgrounder on the history of the radioactive waste dump at Red Gate Woods, a forest preserve in southwest Chicago. Enrico Fermi's Chicago Pile-1 (the first atomic reactor in the world) radioactive wastes were buried there, and have been leaking out ever since.

On Monday, December 3rd the conference organizers are undertaking a fact-finding trip to the site, radiation monitors in hand. They will also leave radiation hazard markers behind, to warn bicyclists, hikers, and families having picnics about the radioactive wastes in their midst at the public park.

Nuke Waste Con Game? Urge NRC to "STOP MAKING IT!"

An illustration of "robust storage" by Dr. Gordon Edwards, in a 2003 study commissioned by Citizens Awareness NetworkThe U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is under court order to undertake an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the risks of long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste in water-cooled indoor pools and air-cooled outdoor dry casks at atomic reactor sites. This landmark victory was won by a coalition of states (CT, NY, NJ, VT) and environmental groups (BREDL, NRDC, Riverkeeper, SACE). The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals nullified NRC's Orwellian "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision," which, since 1984, has been used to block any environmental challenge to reactor licensing having to do with irradiated nuclear fuel. Critics have long dubbed this NRC's "Nuke Waste Con Game."

NRC had expressed "confidence" that wastes could be stored safely on-site for up to 120 years (and the agency was considering declaring 200-300 years as safe!), and that a permanent repository would be opened someday, somewhere, somehow, "when needed." The Court chided NRC for "merely hoping" for a repository.

But now, under pressure from industry which wants new reactor licenses and old reactor license extension rubberstamps ASAP, NRC is rushing the EIS proceeding. On October 26th, it published a half-baked, legally deficient Federal Register Notice, announing an environmental scoping public comment opportunity lasting only till an absurdly short January 2, 2013 deadline. The environmental attorneys who won the landmark ruling (now speaking on behalf of an environmental coalition of two dozen groups, engaged in three dozen reactor licensing proceedings) pushed back on Nov. 8, warning NRC that it needed to withdraw, correct, and re-issue the notice, and certainly extend the public comment opportunity. NRC has yet to respond.

PUBLIC COMMENT OPPORTUNITY: NRC WEBINARS DECEMBER 5TH AND 6TH

In the meantime, NRC plans two webinars next week, on December 5th and 6th (see instructions below for how to access the webinar), to accept environmental scoping comments from the public. Please take part!

Urge NRC to include in its EIS scope the preferred alternative of not approving any more new reactor combined Construction and Operating License Applications (COLA), nor approving any more old reactor 20-year license extensions. That way, no more high-level radioactive waste, for which there is no solution after 70 years of splitting atoms, will be generated. In short, STOP MAKING IT! The only safe, sound solution for high-level radioactive waste is to not make it (or, in NRC's case, allow it to be made) in the first place!

For wastes that already exist, urge NRC to include Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS, a phrase coined by Dr. Arjun Makhijani of IEER in 2002) as the preferred alternative. High-level radioactive waste must be transferred out of water pools, at risk of catastrophic radioactivity releases in the event of a loss of cooling and consequent radioactive waste inferno. But on-site dry cask storage must be significantly upgraded. Dry casks must be designed and fabricated well, with full quality assurance. They must be designed to withstand terrorist attack (as by camouflage, fortifications, and adequate spacing in between casks), to safeguard against accidents, and to prevent radioactivity leakage into the environment for the decades or centuries the wastes will be stuck at the reactor sites. (In 2003, Dr. Gordon Edwards of IRSS published a report, commissioned by Citizens Awareness Network, entitled "Robust Storage." See the illustration of a "robust storage" design for dry casks, above left.)

Beyond Nuclear has prepared additional suggested talking points and background information.

INSTRUCTIONS FROM NRC WASTE CONFIDENCE OUTREACH DIRECTORATE FOR TAKING PART IN WEBINARS:

"Greetings,

The Waste Confidence Directorate received feedback that the webcast for the November 14 afternoon scoping meeting cut off at 4pm EST.  We were able to get the webcast running again after a short delay; however, if you missed the end of that meeting, you can view archived video of the meeting at http://video.nrc.gov/.  After you open the webpage, scroll down to the table of Archived Videos.  The afternoon scoping meeting is titled: Waste Confidence Scoping Meeting for the Environmental Impact Statement (Part 1).  The evening meeting (Part 2) is also available for viewing.

Transcripts for the November 14 meetings are now available in ADAMS:

Afternoon meeting transcript (ADAMS Accession No. ML12331A347): http://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber='ML12331A347

Evening meeting transcript (ADAMS Accession No. ML12331A353): http://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/main.jsp?AccessionNumber='ML12331A353

If you missed the November 14 meetings, please join us for our December 5 (1pm-4pm EST) and December 6 (9pm-12am EST) webinars.  The information presented and format of the webinars will be the same as the November meetings.  The NRC staff will start each webinar with a short presentation (view the slides here), and then we’ll open the phone lines for your questions and comments.  The webinars will be identical, and both will be transcribed so any comments presented over the phone will be included in the Waste Confidence docket.

To register for the December 5 or 6 webinars, please see our meeting notice (ADAMS Accession No. ML12326A911): http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1232/ML12326A911.pdf

[To access Dec. 5th webinar:

Computer link for GoToMeeting registration:

https://www.1.gotomeeting.com/register/892474769

Telephone: 1-800-475-8385; passcode: 3682386

To access Dec. 6th webinar:

Computer link for GoToMeeting registration:

https://www.1.gotomeeting.com/register/619582928

Telephone: 1-800-475-8385; passcode: 3682386]

You can also call Ms. TR Rowe at 1-800-368-5642, ext. 492-3133 or Ms. Susan Wittick, ext. 492-3187 if you have questions about the webinars.

And finally, we have updated our Waste Confidence website with some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/wcd/faq.html 

Sincerely,

Staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Waste Confidence Directorate"

Urge NRC to consider risks of pools & dry casks, improvements of HOSS

Beyond Nuclear, along with numerous environmental allies, provided public comments on the Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule EIS during an environmental scoping hearing at NRC HQ, pictured here, on Nov. 14th.The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has, for decades, used its bogus Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule to block challenges to high-level radioactive waste generation during licensing proceedings for new atomic reactors, or the extension of licenses at old reactors. Since 1984, NRC has expressed mere "confidence" (NRC's word) or "hope" (the federal courts' word) that a permanent dumpsite for irradiated nuclear fuel would be found, and that on-site storage of high-level radioactive waste at reactors, in indoor wet pools and outdoor dry casks, is safe for at least 120 years, if not 300. But this Nuke Waste Con Game was declared game over by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 8, 2012, when it ruled in favor of a coalition of states and environmental groups, and ordered NRC to prepare a decades overdue environmental impact statement (EIS), under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), about the risks of on-site high-level radioactive waste storage.

While, due to legal errors, Beyond Nuclear and environmental allies have demanded that NRC withdraw, correct, and re-issue its Federal Register Notice on the Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule environmental scoping proceeding, the agency has yet to do so. NRC failed to include the proposed action, and alternatives to the proposed action, in its Notice -- basic requirements under the NEPA, as well as its own regulations. Thus, for now at least, NRC's absurdly short deadline of January 2, 2013 for environmental scoping comments still stands.

Please consider using one or more of the points listed in the SAMPLE LANGUAGE below to fashion your own comments to NRC. NRC needs to include the various safety, security, and environmental risks of both pool and dry cask storage of irradiated nuclear fuel in its EIS. It also needs to consider the common sense improvements offered by Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS). And it should include the preferred alternative of stopping the generation of any more high-level radioactive waste at commercial atomic reactors.

Environmental scoping comments can be submitted electronically to www.regulations.gov, using Docket ID NRC-2012-0246 (despite repeated demands, NRC has yet to provide a simple email address for the submission of comments!). Comments can also be snail mailed to: Cindy Bladey, Chief; Rules, Announcements, and Directives Branch; Office of Administration; Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M; U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Washington, D.C. 20555-0001. Comments can also be faxed to Cindy Bladey/NRC, at (301) 492-3446. Comments are currently due by Jan. 2, 2013, although repeated demands for an extension to this absurdly short deadline have been made.

Another way to make public comments is by attending upcoming NRC Webinars: Wed., Dec. 5, 1-4pm Eastern (10am-1pm Pacific), or Thurs., Dec. 6, 9pm-Midnight Eastern (6-9pm Pacific). Note that, in addition to watching the proceeding online, you can also phone in to listen and provide oral comments. You must pre-register to particpate by contacting NRC's Susan Wittick at Susan.Wittick@nrc.gov or (301) 492-3187.

SAMPLE LANGUAGE TO USE TO FASHION YOUR OWN ENVIRONMENTAL SCOPING COMMENTS

The preferred alternative is to stop making irradiated nuclear fuel. NRC should cease licensing atomic reactors, which inevitably generate high-level radioactive waste, deadly for at least a million years. This includes the rejection of any more combined Construction and Operating License Applications (COLAs) for proposed new atomic reactors, such as those recently rubberstamped by NRC at Vogtle, GA and Summer, SC. But this also includes the rejection of any more 20 year license extensions, as NRC has rubberstamped at 73 reactors since the year 2000. Thus, such pending license extensions as at Indian Point 2 & 3 (NY), Crystal River 3 (FL), Diablo Canyon 1 & 2 (CA), Seabrook (NH), Davis-Besse (OH), South Texas 1 & 2 (TX), Limerick 1 & 2 (PA), Grand Gulf 1 (MS), and Callaway (MO) should all be rejected by NRC. (Beyond Nuclear has successfully applied the Nuke Waste Con Game victory to win from NRC two year delays in the finalization of licensing approvals for new reactors at Grand Gulf 2 in MS and Fermi 3 in MI, as well as for 20 year license extensions at Grand Gulf 1 in MS and Davis-Besse in OH. A coalition of two dozen environmental groups has applied the victory against three dozen new and old reactor licensing proceedings across the U.S.)

For the nearly 70,000 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel currently stored at U.S. atomic reactors, Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS) should be required. Pools, at risk of leaks, as well as catastrophic radioactivity leaks due to sudden drain downs or slower motion boil downs, should be emptied. The irradiated nuclear fuel should be transferred into on-site dry casks which are: designed and built to last for centuries; camoflagued to deter, and fortified to withstand, terrorist attacks; safeguarded against accidents; and prevented from corroding and leaking high-level radioactive waste into the environment, as by replacement once per generation, requiring either a pool or a hot cell in which to carry out such transfer operations. Since 2002, nearly 200 environmental groups have called for HOSS, but this has fallen on deaf ears at NRC.

The risks of pool leaks into groundwater, which then flow into surface waters downstream -- as have occurred at Indian Point 2 & 3 (NY/Hudson River), Salem 1 (NJ/Delaware River), CT Yankee (Connecticut River & Long Island Sound), the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Brookhaven High Flux Beam Reactor (Long Island's sole source drinking water aquifer), BWXT Technologies (VA/James River), as well as Hatch (GA/Altamaha River) and Davis-Besse (OH/Lake Erie) -- must be considered in this EIS.

The risks of pool fires must be considered in this EIS. The precarious situation at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 --where a 7.0 earthquake could cause the complete collapse of the reactor building -- risks 135 tons of irradiated fuel catching fire, and releasing ten times the radioactive cesium-137 as was released by the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, directly into the environment. This would dwarf the radioactivity released thus far by the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. But pools at most U.S. atomic reactors contain several times more high-level radioactive waste than does Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, meaning the potential catastrophes downwind, downstream, up the food chain, and down the generations would be even worse here in the event of a pool fire, whether caused by a sudden drain down (due to an earthquake, heavy load drop, terrorist attack, etc.) or a slower motion boil down (due to loss of off-site electricity, whether due to a natural disaster such as a hurricane, an intentional attack, a reactor accident causing abandonment of the nuclear power plant site, etc.).

The risks of current dry cask storage must also be considered in this EIS. Lack of quality assurance on design and fabrication of dry casks, as revealed by industry and even NRC whistleblowers, calls into question the structural integrity of dry casks currently used for on-site storage. Current dry casks, almost all stored outdoors in plain site, have not been designed to withstand terrorism, such as an attack by TOW anti-tank missiles. Dry casks have also suffered many accidents, such as hydrogen explosions, inner seal leaks risking fuel rod corrosion and radioactive gas leaks, as well as seismic damage.

Lou Zeller of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL), one of the environmental groups which won the June 8th court ruling victory, has also submitted comments. 

Pat Birnie, of GE Stockholders Alliance, has also submitted comments to the NRC Commissioners on their Nuclear Waste Confidence Rule. On April 25, 2012, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps had the honor of presenting the GE Stockholder Alliance's resolution to General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and assembled GE shareholders at the company's annual meeting, held in Detroit, Michigan. Recently, Immelt stated that new atomic reactors are not economical.  

"A Mountain of Waste Seventy Years High," December 1-3, 2012 to feature two Japanese women speakers on nuclear weapons and power

Beyond Nuclear, Nuclear Energy Information Service and Friends of the Earth USA are sponosoring the upcoming Chicago conference, "A Mountain of Waste Seventy Years High," December 1-3, 2012, at the University of Chicago's International House. The two featured plenary speakers are Japanese women with very different personal stories that are woven together by the common threat of the Atomic Age.  The conference will observe the 70th commemoration of first nucelar waste generated in the development of the atomic bomb and the first experirments with nuclear fission for the Manhatten Project at the University of Chicago in 1942. Now, seventy years later, the world is confronted with the proliferation of nuclear weapons and a mountain of nuclear waste of more than 250,000 tonnes of irradiated nuclear fuel from atomic reactors alone.

Setsuko Thurlow was thirteen years old on August 6, 1945 and living in Hiroshima, Japan.  She vividly recounts her experience as a survivor of the first atomic bombing of Japan and its relevance to humankind today. "The NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) guarantees the so-called “inalienable right” of states to access nuclear energy in exchange for agreeing never to acquire nuclear weapons. Thus hibakusha, survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who witnessed the atrocity of the first two uses of nuclear weapons 66 years ago, now confront the horror that sufficient nuclear fuel exists in dozens of countries to make another 120,000 nuclear bombs."

Akiko Yoshida is a young safe energy campaigner with Friends of the Earth (FOE) Japan. She brings the latest message from the frontlines of an ongoing nuclear catastrophe still emerging from the radioactive rubble of the  Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. It is story of the Japanese people's united struggle to end nuclear power in Japan and set an example for the world.

"Won't you please come to Chicago, no one else can take your place, we can change the world." Graham Nash

The entire weekend's schedule of events and speakers can be viewed on the Nuclear Energy Information Service website.