Help halt Holtec! National public comment opportunity via NRC phone-in/webinar on Wed., April 25th, 7-9pm Eastern

Members of the public nationwide can submit verbal comments at the following U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) public meeting re: environmental scoping for the Holtec International/Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance, NM highly radioactive waste centralized interim storage facility scheme targeted at southeast New Mexico:

Wednesday, April 25, from 7-9pm Eastern Time

The call-in telephone bridgeline is (888) 946-8389, and the passcode is 6408603.

As recommended by NRC, to register in advance for the webinar, go to  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7824864004787186434, fill out the requested info., and submit it.

Once you register, instructions will be sent to you via email re: How To Join the Webinar, as well as how to choose your audio option (call-in phone #, or Webinar ID #).

Those who live in the Washington, D.C. area could also attend this meeting, to be held at NRC HQ in Rockville, MD, located at 11555 Rockville Pike, to provide verbal comments in person. For more info. on this NRC meeting, click here. For sample comments you can use to prepare your own, click here.

Getting too close to the "too late" time say First Nations

First Nations chiefs and other indigenous and non-indigenous activists came together at the UN in New York on April 23 to hold a special event — “Radioactive Waste and Canada’s First Nations”. They were there to denounce the failure of the Canadian government to consult with -- or listen to -- First Nations peoples about the deadly and permanent damage a proposed radioactive waste dump near the Ottawa River in Ontario could do to people, the land and the environment. They called for respect for Mother Earth and warned that our abandonment of radioactive waste along with inaction on climate change could have catastrophic consequences.

The UN event took place on the same day as a press conference in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. There, the Anishinabek Nation, Ottawa Riverkeeper, the Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, and Ralliement Contre la Pollution Radioactive, called on the International Atomic Energy Agency “to investigate why radioactive waste abandonment plans in Canada are proceeding despite a policy vacuum at the federal level, and with scant attention to international obligations as laid out in the UN Joint Convention on radioactive waste.”

Read our coverage of the UN event -- Mother Earth and the "too late" time: We are getting perilously close, warn First Nations -- at our Beyond Nuclear International blog site. 

UN Side Event Webcast April 23: Radioactive Waste and Canada's First Nations

Message from Dr. Gordon Edwards of CCNR (Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility):

The following is a link to the United Nations archived webcast of a special event, “Radioactive Waste and Canada’s First Nations”,  held on April 23, 2018, on the occasion of the 17th Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. 

Speakers are:

1. Candace Neveau, youth and mother, Bawating Water Protectors, Anishinabek Nation.

2. Grand Chief Joseph Norton, Mohawk Nation of Kahnawà:ke, Iroquois Caucus.

3. Grand Chief Patrick Madahbee, Anishinabek Nation, Union of Ontario Indians.

4. Dr. Gordon Edwards, President, Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility.

5. Chief April Adams-Phillips, Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, Iroquois Caucus.

6. Dr. Ole Hendrickson, Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County and Area, Ottawa, Ontario.

7. Chief Clinton Phillips, Mohawk Nation of Kahnawà:ke, Iroquoid Caucus.

8. Chief Troy Thompson, Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, Iqoquois Caucus.

http://webtv.un.org/watch/radioactive-waste-and-canadas-first-nations-unpfii-side-event/5775372426001/

Groups call for equal nuclear protections for Americans

Beyond Nuclear, Greenpeace Canada, and The Alliance to Halt Fermi 3, are calling for US citizens to receive the same protections against nuclear disaster as their neighbors in Canada. The American Thyroid Association has also come out in favor of harmonizing American and Canadian distribution of potassium-iodide tablets which, if administered promptly, can help reduce the risk of and even prevent thyroid cancer caused by exposure to radioactive iodine released during a nuclear accident.

The group statement came at a public event held in Detroit on April 18, 2018, which set out the reasons why people in Michigan and Ohio living near the Fermi 2 nuclear reactor (pictured) near Monroe, MI, should receive the same protections as Ontario residents living within the Fermi nuclear station’s 10- and 50-mile emergency zones.

In an April 17, 2018 press release, the groups called on U.S. authorities to harmonize American nuclear emergency plans with newly strengthened Canadian public safety rules requiring the direct distribution and stockpiling of potassium iodide (KI) pills for Canadians living near the Michigan-based Fermi 2 nuclear station.

If taken shortly after a nuclear accident, a KI pill significantly reduces the risk of thyroid cancer caused by exposure to radioactive iodine released during a nuclear accident. Thousands of people, especially children, came down with thyroid cancer downwind of the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine. 

Ontario’s recently updated nuclear emergency plan requires KI be predistribute by direct delivery to to door of  Canadians living within the 10-mile evacuation planning zone of the Fermi 2 and strategically stockpiled in 50-mile ingestion planning zones, which reach deep into Southern Ontario.  

“Michigan and Ohio residents living in the Fermi 2 emergency planning zone deserve the same level of protection as their Canadian neighbors,” said Paul Gunter with the Maryland-based organization, Beyond Nuclear. “American authorities should match the new Canadian requirements so that potentially impacted U.S. residents can have KI predistributed directly to their homes and workplaces,” Gunter continued.

Following the 2011 Fukushima disaster, Canadian authorities required safe and effective KI pills be delivered to the homes of over 200,000 Canadians living within the six-mile evacuation zone around Ontario-based reactors and be made available upon request to anyone within a 30-mile extended planning zone. Ontario’s new emergency plan extends this requirement to Canadians living within the Fermi nuclear station’s 10- and 50-mile emergency zones.

The joint campaign effort focuses on a petition initative to municiple governments in the Fermi 2 emergency planning zones calling for harmonization with the Canadian predistribution and stockpiling of KI as supported by medical professionals with the ATA. 

Read the full press release.

Sample comments you can use to write your own for submission to NRC in opposition to Holtec's CISF in s.e. NM

See Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage website section, for sample comments (prepared by Beyond Nuclear, and other groups, such as Nuclear Watch New Mexico) you can use to prepare your own for submission to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). We need to generate large numbers of quality public comments, in opposition to Holtec International/Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance's (ELEA) scheme to open a centralized interim storage facility for 100,000+ metric tons of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel in southeast New Mexico. This de facto permanent surface storage parking lot dump would be bigger than the permanent burial dump targeted at Yucca Mountain, Nevada (limited by law to 70,000 metric tons of highly radioactive waste). Thus, the transport impacts to most states in the Lower 48 would also be worse.

If you live close enough, you can submit verbal comments in person at NRC public meetings in s.e. NM in late April/early May. See details at Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage website section for details on dates, locations, and times.

NRC has announced a national phone-in/webinar session for public comment submission on Wednesday, April 25, from 7-9pm Eastern Time. The call-in number/webinar sign-up instructions will be circulated, as soon as NRC provides them. Those who live in the Washington, D.C. area could also attend this meeting, to be held at NRC HQ in Rockville, MD, located at 11555 Rockville Pike, to provide verbal comments in person.

(And if you know people near s.e. NM and Washington, D.C., please spread word to them! Let folks know far and wide about the phone-in webinar, and other comment submission opportunities!)

The public comment deadline is May 29, 2018. Instructions for how to submit your public comments online, via Regulations.gov, as well as by snail mail, to NRC are provided at Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage website section posts.

Members of the public can submit as many public comments as they wish, with no length restrictions. Watch Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage website section in the days and weeks ahead, for yet more sample comments, addressing the multifaceted high risks of the Holtec/ELEA scheme.