DOE opens another round of public comment on draft 'Consent-Based Siting'

Concerned citizens and environmental groups have been expressing their non-consent to bad, dangerous radioactive waste policies for a very long time. This photo was taken at NRC HQ in Rockville, MD in Nov. 2013, as representatives of an environmental coalition protested NRC's Nuke Waste Con Game (Nuclear Waste Confidence, or Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel) policies, allowing unlimited generation of irradiated nuclear fuel, and its unsafe storage in pools and dry casks for decades, and even centuries, to come. Photo credit: Erica Grey and Dave Martin.On the very eve of its September 15th public meeting in Washington, DC -- to summarize public comments received between Dec. 23, 2015 to July 31, 2016 re: so-called 'Consent-Based Siting' of radioactive waste dumps -- the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced yet another public comment opportunity (see the DOE's last minute announcement, reproduced below, in italics).

DOE also published its draft summary of public comments (84 pages long), after 7pm Eastern on Sept. 14th, less than 24 hours before its meeting just scheduled two weeks earlier (only announced Sept. 1st), to take place in Washington, DC beginning at 2pm Eastern on Sept. 15th.

DOE has also published for the first time links to this year's public comments themselves, generated by such groups as Beyond Nuclear, NIRS, Public Citizen, Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Campaign, etc. As can be seen, the public comments have been high quality, and submitted in very large numbers (measured in the thousands, all told).

We must continue to hold DOE's feet to the fire, by submitting another flood of high quality public comments, making clear WE DO NOT CONSENT to DOE's parking lot dump plans, its Mobile Chernobyl plans, nor to U.S. House Republican plans to resurrect the cancelled Yucca Mountain, Nevada burial dump.

Nor do we consent to the ongoing risks associated with "wet" pool and dry cask storage of irradiated nuclear fuel at nuclear power plants -- and continue, after a decade and a half of doing so, to call for Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS), as well as the cessation of production of high-level radioactive waste (that is, we demand atomic reactors permanently shut down)!

Beyond Nuclear will release another round of sample talking points in the near future, as well as the addresses (online, snail mail, fax, etc.) to which to submit comments. You can use the sample talking points to fashion your own, for submission to DOE.

Here is DOE's announcement, including a link to the DOE draft summary report (on which it has requested further public comment by Oct. 30th):

Hello,

The draft report titled Designing a Consent-Based Siting Process: Summary of Public Input is now available on the Department of Energy consent-based siting website here.

To launch the consent-based siting effort, DOE issued an “Invitation for Public Comment to Inform the Design of a Consent-Based Siting Process for Nuclear Waste Storage and Disposal Facilities” in the Federal Register on December 23, 2015. The comment period was open through July 31, 2016.

Comments received throughout the Invitation for Public Comment and public meetings are summarized in a draft report, titled Designing a Consent-Based Siting Process: Summary of Public Input.  The draft report will be available for public comment for 45 days via a Federal Register Notice beginning September 15, 2016 and concluding on October 30, 2016.  In addition, public comments received on the December 23^rd Invitation for Public Comment are now publically posted at here and comments received via regulations.gov are available at here.

Thank you to everyone who attended our public meetings, provided comments, and participated in this important first step. 

John Kotek

Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy

U.S. Department of Energy