Environmental coalition members from the Crabshell Alliance, Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Campaign, NIRS, PSR, NEIS, and Public Citizen "just say NO!" at the NRC HQ nuke waste con game public comment meeting on 11/14/13 in Rockville, MD. Photo credit David Martin and Erica Grey. Similar strong turn outs are needed at DOE's upcoming "Consent-Based Siting" meeting, to say "NO!" to Mobile Chernobyl and de facto permanent high-level radioactive waste parking lot dumps!Chip Cameron, a consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (ONE, or NE) on its "Consent-Based Siting" of high-level radioactive waste dumps public relations exercise, sent the following email to Colordo nuclear watchdogs on Tuesday, May 17th:
From: "Chip Cameron" <fxcameo@gmail.com>
Date: May 17, 2016 8:07 AM
Subject: Department of Energy (DOE) public meeting
Good morning--
I wanted to let you know that DOE will be holding a public meeting in Denver on May 24th at the Embassy Suites Denver, from 4:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.. The meeting is to receive comments and suggestions from the public on the development of a "consent-based siting" process for the storage and disposal of radioactive waste. There will be several short presentations by notable people in the community, as well as by DOE. A question and comment period will follow. There will also be facilitated small group table discussions on the issues. I am one of the facilitators for the small group discussions. I have attached more information, as well as an agenda. Please contact me if I can provide further information.
Chip Cameron
Cameron attached
an agenda. (Note that Don Hancock of Southwest Research Information Center, a long-time Waste Isolation Pilot Project watchdog in New Mexico, will speak on a panel.)
(Please note that Chip Cameron has long been employed as a public interface for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), as well. For example, he has long been employed as a facilitator at some of the most highly contentious public meetings across the country -- most recently, for example, during NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence public comment period meetings, as well as at Vermont Yankee decommissioning public meetings. Cameron was long based at NRC's Office of General Counsel, that is, its legal division. However, his public role meant he largely functioned, effectively, as a primary NRC Office of Public Affaris spokesman. Despite retiring from NRC several years ago, Cameron is still often tapped, to play similar or even identical functions and roles, right up to the present day. DOE has now tapped him for its "Consent-Based Siting" scheme.)
It must be pointed out, however, that DOE's "Consent-Based Siting" proceeding is not a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliant proceeding, by design. NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence pubilc comment meetings and public comment period were supposed to have been NEPA-compliant, although they fell far short -- the subject of a lawsuit (NY v. NRC II) before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Although many in the public think DOE's "Consent-Based Siting" proceeding is NEPA-compliant, and DOE has done nothing to disabuse that illusion, DOE ONE's official in charge of the proceeding, John Kotek, confirmed under direct questioning by Beyond Nuclear, at the Chicago meeting on March 29th, that this proceeding is not NEPA-compliant; it is more of a PR exercise, in pursuit of the nuclear power industry's agenda, which DOE ONE fully supports.
Denver will be the fifth of nine DOE "Consent-Based Siting" public meetings, extending from January to July. It will be among the very closest, geographically, to the top targets for parking lot dumps, namely, Waste Control Specialists, LLC in Andrews County, west Texas, and Eddy-Lea Counties, in the southeast corner of New Mexico, near the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP). The public comment period (again, non-NEPA compliant) ends July 31st.
Update on May 24, 2016 by
admin
DOE posted this on its website:
Our fourth public meeting was held in Denver, Colorado on May 24th. To view a video of the event and access meeting materials, please click here.
As stated by a concerned citizen who participated in one of DOE's dog and pony shows, regarding the video/transcript posted above:
It's an opportunity to see the propaganda being spread by the DOE and John Kotek specifically.
