Protests against risky radioactive waste schemes in both the U.S. and Canada

Environmental coalition attorney Diane CurranLate last week, the day after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) public meeting about a recent study on high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) pool fire risks, attorney Diane Curran (photo, left), on behalf of an environmental coalition including Beyond Nuclear, wrote NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane. Curran protested against the arbitrarily narrow focus of the public meeting, and called once again for the fatally flawed NRC staff pool fire risk study to be withdrawn.

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps testified by phone at the NRC public meeting last week.

In June 2012, Curran helped lead a coalition of states and environmental groups in a major legal victory against NRC's bogus "Nuclear Waste Confidence" policy. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ordered NRC to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the risks of storing HLRW on-site at atomic reactors. NRC is poised to publish its draft EIS (DEIS) in the Federal Register in September. The DEIS's publication will start a short 75-day clock for public comments, including at a dozen hearings across the U.S.

And today, Kevin submitted another round of testimony to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, in opposition to the DGR (for Deep Geologic Repository), or DUD (Deep Underground Dump) targeted at the Lake Huron shore in Ontario.