Urge NRC Chairwoman Macfarlane to withdraw legally deficient Nuke Waste Con Game environmental assessment

US NRC Chairwoman Allison MacfarlaneOn Nov. 14th, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held public comment hearing sessions regarding its court-ordered environmental assessment (EA) on its Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule. Critics have dubbed this NRC's "Nuke Waste Con Game," for it has been used by the agency to block challenges to reactor licensing for decades, if environmental groups or concerned citizens raise questions about the safety or security of on-site storage of high-level radioactive waste at atomic reactors. But on June 8th, a coalition of states and environmental groups prevailed at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, when a panel of federal judges ruled that NRC must perform an environmental impact statement (EIS) to document its claimed confidence that irradiated nuclear fuel can be stored safely and securely at reactor sites for 120 years.

On Nov. 8th, the same environmental attorneys who won the court victory wrote NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane (pictured above left), urging her to withdraw NRC's Federal Register Notice on the EA, due to its violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as well as NRC's own regulations (specificially, 10CFR51.27(a)(2)). Critically lacking from the EA Notice are a description of the proposed action, as well as alternatives to the proposed action. A number of environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear, cited that letter yesterday, calling for these legal violations to be corrected, and for this proceeding to be suspended in the meantime.

Please urge NRC Chairwoman Macfarlane to withdraw the Federal Register Notice, suspend this proceeding, and correct the legal errors. Here is language you can use:

[Dear Chairwoman Macfarlane,

Regarding the scoping process for the Waste Confidence Environmental Impact Statement (Docket ID NRC-2012-0246), please withdraw the relevant Federal Register Notice and correct its legal deficiencies, suspending this proceeding until you have done so. Specifically, the lack of a proposed action, and the lack of alternatives to the proposed action, violate the National Environmental Policy Act, as well as NRC's own regulations (10CFR51.27(a)(2)). The safety and security risks of storing irradiated nuclear fuel at reactor sites in pools and dry casks are too great for this scoping process to go forward, given NRC's legal errors.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME AND CONTACT INFORMATION]

You can send your comments to Chairwoman Macfarlane by email at Chairman@nrc.gov, by snail mail [to Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane; U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Mail Stop O-16G4; Washington, DC 20555-0001], or you can phone her office at (301) 415-1750.

"Reading Radioactive Tea Leaves": Kewaunee reactor to shut down

John LaForge of Nukewatch in Luck, WIJohn LaForge of Nukewatch in Luck, WI (pictured left) has penned an op-ed, "Reading Radioactive Tea Leaves: Without a Buyer for Old Kewaunee Reactor, Owner Chooses Shut Down." In it, he details the many radioactive bullets Wisconsin has dodged, and has not dodged, at Kewaunee, just in recent years, including: "...a 2009 emergency shutdown caused by improper steam pressure instrument settings; a 2007 loss of main turbine oil pressure; an emergency cooling water system design flaw found in 2006; [the August 2006 discovery of radioactive tritium leaking into groundwater, for an unknown period, from unidentified pipes somewhere beneath the reactor complex]; a possible leak in November 2005 of highly radioactive primary coolant into secondary coolant which is discharged to Lake Michigan; a simultaneous failure of all three emergency cooling water pumps in February 2005, etc.".

Regarding high-level radioactive waste, John also wrote:

"...Considering Wisconsin’s nuclear power history, Kewaunee’s extremely hot and highly radioactive waste fuel will need expensive management for decades. The La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor near Genoa, Wis. was closed in 1987, and 25 years later its deadly waste fuel is still there, on the banks of the Mississippi..."

John added: "...Literally endless expenditures will be required to keep Kewaunee’s radioactive wastes contained, monitored and out of drinking water for the length of time the federal appeals courts have declared is the required minimum— 300,000 years..."

Nukewatch has watchdogged Kewaunee for decades. On April 23, 2011, Nukewatch organized a "Walk for a Nuclear-Free Future" from Kewaunee to Point Beach's two reactors -- a distance of seven miles, the same as the distance between Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants -- to commemorate the 25th year since the Chernobyl atomic reactor exploded and burned beginning on April 26, 1986. The event took place just six weeks after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe had begun. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps took part in the walk, and as a keynote speaker along with Natasha Akulenko, a native of Kiev, Ukraine and surivor of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.

Attendance and public comments critically needed at NRC Nuke Waste Con Game environmental scoping hearing

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced that it will hold environmental scoping sessions on Wednesday, November 14th to take public comments about what should be included in its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on court-ordered changes to its Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule. See NRC's meeting notice, as well as the agenda for the hearing sessions, the associated Federal Register notice, and NRC's Waste Confidence website.

NRC has not done an EIS on the risks of on-site storage of high-level radioactive waste in pools and dry casks. Last June, a coalition of several state attorneys general and environmental groups won a landmark victory when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals nullified NRC's 30 year old Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule, and ordered the agency to carry out an EIS at long last. In 2010, NRC had flippantly ruled that high-level radioactive wastes were safe and sound at reactor sites for at least 120 years, and was considering extending that ruling out to 200 to 300 years. The court nullified such nonsense, ordering an EIS. The EIS -- which realistically should take on the order of seven years to carry out, if done properly -- will cause at least two years of delay in final NRC approval of new reactor construction and operations licenses, as well as old reactor license extensions.

It is critical that concerned citizens and environmental groups attend and provide public comments at these environmental scoping hearing sessions on Nov. 14th. The two sessions will be identical.

The first session, to be held from 1-4 PM Eastern (10 AM-1 PM Pacific) will involve both an in-person public hearing at NRC's HQ in Rockville, MD (in the One White Flint North Commissioners' Hearing Room), as well as the opportunity to take part by webcast and teleconferece. The second session will be webcast/teleconferenced only (no in-person meeting), and will be held from 9 PM-12 Midnight Eastern (6-9 PM Pacific).

To present comments by telephone during the webcast, dial 1-800-475-8385; when prompted, enter passcode 3682386, followed by the # sign.

To access the webcast, go to http://video.nrc.gov for connection information.

Register to participate and request to present oral comments, whether in-person or via teleconference, by contacting Ms. Susan Wittick (extension 3187) or Ms. TR Rowe (ext. 3133) at the following phone number: 1-800-368-5642. You can also register by email at WCOutreach@nrc.gov.

As Beyond Nuclear urged in our weekly email bulletin last week regarding the NRC Chairwoman, please also consider sending letters or emails, or making phone calls, to the five members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (click on each Commissioners' name to see their contact info.), as well as to NRC Staff liaison Sarah Lopas (NEPA Communications Project Manager, Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards, U.S. NRC, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, Sarah.Lopas@nrc.gov, 301-492-3425), requesting an extension of time for the hearings, as well as an extension of time for the entire environmental scoping process, as the NRC has not provided the public with enough time to study the issues and prepare either written or oral comments. Point out that the lack of adequate information in the Federal Register Notice, which the NRC should have provided in the first instance -- such as what the proposed action is, and what are reasonable alternatives to it, basic components of any National Environmental Impact Statement (NEPA) environmental impact statement process. Ask the NRC Commissioners and Staff liaison to withdraw the scoping notice and re-publish it in form that passes legal muster under NEPA. In addition, urge the NRC Commissioners and NRC Staff liaison to hold regional hearings, so that those living in the shadows of nuclear power plants and their stored high-level radioactive waste can attend and talk to NRC officials in person. See Diane Curran et al.'s letter below for ideas about what to say.

Please see below for additional background information, including strategic ideas for key public comments you can make.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

See Beyond Nuclear's pamphlet on the Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High (cover, above left). A key message to deliver to NRC: "It's time to stop making it!"

See Beyond Nuclear's backgrounder on the risks of GE Mark I reactor high-level radioactive waste storage pools, in light of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe.

See Beyond Nuclear's backgrounder on radioactive leaks from high-level radioactive waste storage pools, into soil, groundwater and surface water (note this is not an exhaustive list -- Hatch in Georgia, and recently Davis-Besse in Ohio, have also suffered pool leaks). Beyond Nuclear's report "Leak First, Fix Later" has an entire chapter about the pool leaks at Entergy's Indian Point reactors near New York City.

Diane Curran, Geoffrey Fettus, and Mindy Goldstein, the attorneys who led the environmental coalition's effort in the Nuclear Waste Confidence lawsuit, have written to the five NRC Commissioners on behalf of 25 groups, urging that the current environmental impact statement proceeding be suspended and corrected, due to major legal errors in NRC's notice and approach, which violate the National Environmental Policy Act.

Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL), one of the four environmental groups (also including Natural Resources Defense Council, Riverkeeper, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy) which joined the States of New York, Vermont, New Jersey, and Connecticut's Attorneys General in suing NRC over the Nuclear Waste Confidence Rule, has put out a helpful fact sheet about the upcoming Nov. 14th environmental scoping sessions, as well as related Dec. 5th and 6th NRC webinars.

An important comment to make is that Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS) is a wise, interim alternative to risky radioactive waste transport, as well as risky pool and dry cask storage. Nearly 200 environmental groups have endorsed HOSS for well over a decade, but their call has fallen on deaf ears at NRC. (To learn more about the risks of radioactive waste transport, see Beyond Nuclear's website sub-section on this subject, as well as that of NIRS and the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.)

To learn more about the risks of on-site pool and dry cask storage, see Beyond Nuclear's relevant website section, as well as that of NIRS.

To learn more about the risks of permanent dumpsites, see Beyond Nuclear's and NIRS's websites. To learn more about the risks of the Yucca Mountain dumpsite proposal in particular, see the State of Nevada's website.

To learn more about the risks of "centralized interim storage" (parking lot dumps), see Beyond Nuclear's and NIRS's websites.

Radioactive steam generators from San Onofre, CA heavy haul trucked through 3 States, dumped in UT

The almost 800,000-pound piece of "slightly radioactive" steel from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will be moving to a disposal site in Utah through California and Nevada. / KCBSAs reported by KCBS News, a radioactive steam generator has been heavy haul trucked from the southern CA coast, across NV and into UT, before being dumped at the EnergySolutions "EnviroCare" so-called "low" level radioactive waste dump in Clive, UT, not far from the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation.

The heavy haul truck trailer measured 400 feet long. Heavy haul truck shipments are usually of much shorter duration, as they can only travel at speeds in the single digits of miles per hour.

This shipment's route was kept secret for "security reasons," officials said.

Although Southern California Edison claims little to no radiological risk associated with the shipment, a dental x-ray per hour at a distance of 5 to 10 feet still represents a gamma ray hazard for workers, inspectors, innocent bystanders, and passers by. As NAS has long affirmed, any exposure to radioactivity carries a health risk for cancer, and these risks accumulate over a lifetime.

And, as documented by Dr. Gordon Edwards of Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility regarding radioactive steam generators at Bruce Nuclear Complex in Ontario, the radioactive contaminants inside steam generators are significantly hazardous.

As mentioned in the news coverage, the sheer size of the load is also a hazard. At 800,000 pounds, or 400 tons, this shipment is among the heaviest out there on the roads. In 2003, a 290 ton radioactive reactor pressure vessel traveling from northern MI to SC by train so damaged the tracks in SE MI, as well as in the Carolinas, that follow on trains derailed in its wake.

Update, Easter Day, 2013:

A 500-600 ton load dropped by Entergy at its Arkansas Nuclear One plant has killed one worker and injured 8.

"A Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High: Ending the Nuclear Age," Chicago, December 1-3

A number of experts have confirmed they will speak, including (alphabetical by last name): Kinnette Benedict, Executive Director & Publisher, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; Robert Chavez, indigenous youth anti-uranium activist, Okayowingeh (San Juan Pueblo), New Mexico; Diane D'Arrigo, Radioactive Waste Project Director, Nuclear Information and Resource Service; Kay Drey, Beyond Nuclear board member, and nearly four decade long anti-nuclear activist; Norma M. Field, Ph.D., Robert S. Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor in Japanese Studies in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago; Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer, Fairewinds Associates; Paul Gunter, Reactor Oversight Project Director, Beyond Nuclear; Kristen Iversen, author, Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats; Arne Jungjohann, Director for the Environment and Global Dialogue Program of the Washington, D.C. office, Heinrich Boell Foundation; Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Beyond Nuclear; and Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, and author, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy; Dr. Jeff Patterson, Board of Directors, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Madison, Wisconsin; Kathleen Rude, conducting Active Hope (a workshop to deal with Nuclear Despair, based on the works of Joanna Macy); Kendra Ulrich, Friends of the Earth USA, Washington, DC; Charmaine White Face, Coordinator, Defenders of the Black Hills, Rapid City, South Dakota; and  Akiko Yoshida, Friends of the Earth, Tokyo, Japan

In addition, a film has been confirmed to be screened: The Atomic States of America, by Sheena Joyce and Don Argot of 9.14 Pictures in Philadelphia.

Finally, on Monday, December 3rd, an optional field trip to Red Gate Woods is being organized. This is the forest preserve in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago where Fermi's first radioactive wastes of the Atomic Age were buried under a mound of earth, and marked with a simple stone marker. Bicycle and hiking paths pass close by. Previous tours to the site have not registered higher than normal background radioactivity levels, although concerns persist about eventual leakage of radioactivity from the site into the environment. We will be sure to take radiation monitors on our Dec. 3rd field trip, in order to document radioactivity levels, as well as to protect ourselves.

Update on October 29, 2012 by admin

Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) of Chicago has posted conference materials on its website, including a conference schedule, a registration form, and a registration payment link. NEIS has also published a promotional flyer, as well as its own confirmed speakers list.

Activities on Saturday, December 1st will be held at the University of Chicago's International House, and are co-sponsored by the Global Voices Program. The activites on Sunday, December 2nd will be held at Hutchinson Commons, and are planned and co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Climate Action Network. Activities on Monday, December 3rd will include a field trip to Red Gate Woods, where the radioactive wastes from Enrico Fermi's experimental atomic pile are buried.