Update on NRC's "Nuke Waste Con Game": 10 public hearings in 9 cities this autumn

Beyond Nuclear has chosen the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) infamous "Nuke Waste Con Game" as one of its very first "Indictments" against the rouge agency.

NRC is poised to make publicly available what it is calling its Waste Confidence Decision Rulemaking Package next week, likely on June 24th. It will include a number of major draft environmental impact statement documents, as well as 100 technical reference reports, comprising thousands of pages.

The Waste Confidence Decision Rulemaking Package will not be officially published in the Federal Register until late summer or early autumn, however. When it is, NRC will allow a mere 75 days for public comment on its Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement regarding its "confidence" that high-level radioactive wastes can be stored safely, on-site at reactors, in indoor storage pools and outdoor dry casks, for not only 60 or 160 years, but indefinitely into the future. The end result of such a "Confidence Decision," or Con Game, would be to bless the generation of unlimited amounts of high-level radioactive waste into the indefinite future, just as the agency has blessed the generation of tens of thousands of metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel since the Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision was first promulgated, appropriately enough (in an Orwellian sense, anyway!), in 1984.

As spelled out below: NRC's public comment meetings, this autumn, will be held in the following cities:  Boston, New York City, Denver, Minneapolis, San Clemente, San Luis Obispo, Toledo, and Charlotte.  The regional meetings must be attended in-person.  Two meetings from NRC headquarters (in Rockville) will also be conducted.  These will be available for viewing online and you can participate through a telephone call-in number. 

Mindy Goldstein, Director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia, took the following concise and helpful notes from today's NRC "Waste Confidence Directorate" monthly update conference call. She served as one of a team of attorneys who won a major legal victory in federal appeals court against NRC's Nuke Waste Con Game in June, 2012. The victory included the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ordering NRC to undertake an Environmental Impact Statement regarding the risks of storing high-level radioactive waste on-site at reactors not for decades, nor even centuries, but perhaps forever, if a deep geologic repository is never opened.

[Notes from today's NRC] Waste Confidence Directorate Call

June 19, 2013

1:30-2:30

*Sometime next week (probably on June 24), the NRC will send out a Waste Confidence Decision Rulemaking Package.  The package will be published on ADAMS and email notice will be given through WC Outreach.

*The package is not the formal Federal Register notice of rulemaking for official comment.  Rather, it is a DRAFT package to help the public get familiar with the content of the proposed rule and accompanying draft generic environmental impact statement (Draft GEIS) before the formal notice and comment period begins.  All documents in the package are subject to revision before final publication.

Content of the Waste Confidence Decision Rulemaking Package

1.       SECY Paper (also called the Commission Review Draft) from the NRC Staff to the Commission, presenting its recommendations and conclusions regarding the rulemaking.

2.       Draft Federal Register Notice with the Proposed Rule (100 pages).

3.       Proposed Draft GEIS (600 pages). The Draft GEIS is based on NUREG 1748.  It will contain 10 chapters and 8 appendices.  Timeframes analyzed in the Draft GEIS (for both on and offsite storage) are 60 years, 160 years, and indefinite.  Electronic versions of all the technical documents (there are over 100) on which the GEIS relies will be made available through a direct link on the Waste Confidence Decision website (in addition to ADAMS).

The NRC expects the formal Federal Register notice to be published late summer or early fall.  At that time, the public will be given 75 days to comment.  There will be ten public meetings held during the comment period as well.  Comments can be submitted in writing or through spoken comments at the meetings.

Meetings will be held in the following cities:  Boston, New York City, Denver, Minneapolis, San Clemente, San Obispo, Toledo, and Charlotte.  The regional meetings must be attended in-person.  Two meetings from NRC headquarters (in Rockville) will also be conducted.  These will be available for viewing online and you can participate through a telephone call-in number. 

THE NEXT CALL [the monthly NRC Waste Confidence Directorate monthly update]:  Wednesday, August 14 from 1:30-2:30 [Eastern].

ONLINE CHAT:  July 23 at 2:30 – which can be accessed from nrc.gov.