Action Alert: Minneapolis, MN DOE "Consent-Based Siting" public meeting, Thurs., July 21st

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will hold its final "Consent-Based Siting" public comment meeting in Minneapolis, MN on Thursday, July 21st. This is the ninth of nine such meetings held across the U.S. this year.

The meetings come in the context of DOE seeking "consent" for rushed centralized interim storage* (de facto permanent parking lot dumps) for high-level radioactive waste, by as early as 2021. It's important we turn folks out, both in person, as well as via the Webcast.

Whether it's the long-targeted Yucca Mountain, Nevada dumpsite, or a parking lot dump, the high-risk Mobile Chernobyl shipments launched, through most states, would be unprecedented in number.

Please see below for sample talking points you can use to prepare your own. Also see DOE's mtg. announcement, as well as backgrounders and maps we've prepared or assembled, re: transport risks, whether by road, rail, and/or waterway. Finally, a backgrounder shedding light on/asking important questions about the risk that Minnesota could be targeted once again, as it was in the 1980s, for a national high-level radioactive waste dumpsite.

Thanks!

---Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Beyond Nuclear
(240) 462-3216

*While "consent-based siting" for permanent geologic repositories (dumpsites) is also on the agenda, DOE predicts a national dumpsite won't open till 2048. However, parking lot dumps are scheduled for as early as 2021, meaning the groundwork is already being laid now. Also, this public comment proceeding will lay the groundwork for permanent geologic repository site searches to come, including the potential targeting of MN in the future. 

"We do NOT CONSENT!" Sample talking points you can use to prepare your own, to DOE, opposing the Yucca dump, parking lot dumps, and Mobile Chernobyls

Beyond Nuclear has prepared sample talking points, entitled WE DO NOT CONSENT!, that you can use to prepare your own public comments, for submission to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in opposition to high-risk, high-level radioactive waste shipments (by road, rail, and/or waterway) to Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as well as to "centralized interim storage sites" (de facto permanent parking lot dumps).

Full length (13-page) version: Beyond Nuclear's WE DO NOT CONSENT! sample talking points are available in PDF format (as well as Word format, with live URL links, at our Website).

Short summary (2-page) version: PDF format (and Word format, with live URL links, at our Website).

Beyond Nuclear has also prepared an even shorter version of sample talking points, a one-page, Top 10 List, of comments to make to DOE: PDF format; and posted online (with live URL links).

Please feel free to use one or more of the sample talking points (verbatim, or adapted to your own words) to prepare your own public comments, and then submit them to DOE by its July 31, 2016 deadline. Express your strong opposition to the Yucca dump, to parking lot dumps, and to Mobile Chernobyls/Floating Fukushimas/Dirty Bombs on Wheels! Also speak out against non-consent based targeting of such states as MN down the road in the future. And please, spread the word.