[Please see Update below. NRC has announced the postponement, and perhaps even cancellation, of the public comment meetings in California next week, due to the federal government shutdown. NRC has indicated that in the days ahead, it will also announce the fate of other upcoming meetings, such as near Toledo, and in Minnesota. Please note that written comments can and should still be submitted by the various ways described below.]
Beyond Nuclear provided oral public comments at the first U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) meeting -- on October 1st at NRC's headquarters in Rockville, Maryland -- regarding the agency's court-ordered "Nuclear Waste Confidence" draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS). The public comment period lasts until November 27th.
North Anna nuclear power plant watchdog Erica Grey and Diane D'Arrigo of NIRS unfurl a "STOP THE NUKE CON JOB" banner at the NRC public comment meeting on October 1st.You can use Beyond Nuclear's oral testimony on October 1st as a model to help prepare your own oral or written public comments. Beyond Nuclear has prepared additional sample comments, or "talking points," that you can use to prepare your own as well.
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) has also prepared talking points you can use to prepare your own comments, and has provided other preparatory materials for taking part in the public comment meetings.
A press conference on Oct. 2nd featuring environmental coalition attorney Diane Curran of Washington, DC, Dr. Gordon Thompson of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies, and Bob Alvarez of Institute for Policy Studies also provides deep insights on the potentially catastrophic risks of HLRW pool fires that can be used to fashion public comments. Thompson and Alvarez co-authored a study in 2003 with now-NRC Chairwoman, Allison Macfarlane, warning about such risks, and calling for the transfer of irradiated nuclear fuel out of densely-packed pools into dry cask storage as a top national security priority.
You can make public comments orally at any of the 11 remaining public hearings across the country. The next one is on October 3rd in the Denver area. To make oral comments at these field meetings across the U.S., you must attend in person. No webinar access, nor teleconference opportunity, is being provided by NRC at these field meetings.
The final scheduled NRC public meeting is on November 14th, again at the agency's Rockville, MD HQ. The Nov. 14th meeting will allow oral comments made via telephone conference call bridge line; the meeting will also be viewable via webcast.
NRC urges those wishing to make oral public comments to pre-register.
While the Oct. 3rd Denver meeting is confirmed as happening, NRC has indicated that all future meetings depend on an end to the current government shutdown. If the government shutdown continues, the future meetings may be postponed or even cancelled.
This should not be. As David Blee of the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council -- a nuclear industry lobbyist representing a trade group -- commented at the Oct. 1st meeting, industry licensees provide some 90% of NRC's budget, so why should a federal government shutdown affect the agency's public meetings in any significant way?
Several public commenters noted the irony of NRC's conclusion that on-site or away-from-reactor storage of irradiated nuclear fuel forevermore will be safe, sound, and secure based on the absurd assumption that "institutional control" will be maintained indefinitely into the future. How can NRC make such an assumption for centuries or even millenia into the future, when the U.S. government is currently shutdown?!
A large number of quality public comments are vitally needed during this public comment period. The June 8, 2012 court victory against NRC's bogus Nuke Waste Con Game has already forced the NRC Commission to suspend finalization of proposed new reactor license applications, as well as degraded old reactor license extensions, for at least two years, until the GEIS is finalized and a Record of Decision (ROD) is issued. Some three dozen environmental groups have cited this court-ordered NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) proceeding in some two dozen reactor licensing proceedings. For example, Beyond Nuclear has cited this legal victory to block the finalization of an old reactor license extension rubberstamp by NRC at Davis-Besse, Ohio, as well as a proposed new reactor operating license at Fermi 3, Michigan.
Previously, the NRC admitted it would take seven years to carry out such a GEIS. NRC is clearly racing through this GEIS proceeding, under industry pressure to resume rubberstamping reactor operating licenses as soon as possible. In fact, at the Oct. 1st meeting, several Nuclear Energy Institute lobbyists called for such an expedited finalization of this draft GEIS, ASAP.
If you can make it, please consider attending any of 10 remaining field meetings across the country, and making oral public comment. And bring friends with you!
If you can't attend a meeting in person, please attend the final meeting on Nov. 14th via teleconference (or webinar), and make your oral comment via the phone bridge.
Or submit your written comments via email, web form, snail mail, or fax before the Nov. 27th deadline.
Please spread the word! Thank you.
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