U.S. congressional high-level radioactive waste legislation -- bills that Beyond Nuclear opposes, and supports

Beyond Nuclear opposes these bills:

H.R. 2699, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 [Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney (Democrat from CA-9), U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (Republican from IL-15), et al.]

[See analyses of and commentary on H.R. 2699, by Robert Halstead, director, State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, from June 2019:

---U.S. House Subcommittee hearing testimony;

---Analysis of and commentary on H.R. 2699];

See this November 20, 2019 post re: passage of H.R. 2699 by the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee, by voice vote. 

See this September 26, 2019 post re: passage of H.R. 2699 by the U.S. House Environment and Climate Subcommittee by voice vote. 

Here is the link to the Subcommittee's own website post re: voice vote passage of H.R. 2699 during mark up, one of 15 bills. Here are the opening remarks by Committee Chairman Pallone (D-NJ) at the subcommittee mark up.

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S. 2917, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 [Sponsored by U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), and U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND); identical to H.R. 2699].

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H.R. 2995, the Spent Fuel Prioritization Act of 2019 [Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mike Levin (Democrat from CA-49), et al.].

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H.R. 3136, the Storage and Transportation of Residual and Excess Nuclear Fuel Act of 2019 (a.k.a. the STORE Nuclear Fuel Act) [Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui (Democrat from CA-6), et al.].

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See the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing from 6/13/19, re: all three House bills mentioned above (H.R. 2699, H.R. 2995, H.R. 3136), at this link. There you will find the video of the hearing, as well as links to witness introductory remarks and full written testimonies.

See a Beyond Nuclear letter for the record submitted to the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee for the hearing on 6/13/19, expressing opposition to all three bills.

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S. 1234, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2019 [Sponsored by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Republican from AK), U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (Republican from TN), and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Democrat from CA)].

See the video of the 6/27/19 Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing on this bill, with links to witness introductions and full written testimonies, at this link.

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Beyond Nuclear also opposes funding for the Yucca Mountain, Nevada dump-site, as well as for the New Mexico and Texas consolidated interim storage facilities, in both congressional budget as well as appropriations bills.

The Trump administration roll out for Fiscal Year 2021 budget figures took place on February 10, 2020. It reflected a tweet sent by Trump some days earlier, announcing his administration would not seek any funding for the Yucca dump licensing restart in FY2021. For each of the three previous Fiscal Years, the Trump administration had requested $120 million for Yucca dump licensing restart, but never got any funding, through congressional blocking actions. However, funding for "Interim Waste Management," closely tied to consolidated interim storage proposals, has been passed year after year. In FY2020, the figure was around $25 million. The Trump administration has requested $27.5 million for "Interim Waste Management" in FY2021.

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Beyond Nuclear supports these bills*:

H.R. 1544, the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act/ S. 649, the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act.

[In the U.S. House, sponsored by Dina Titus, Steven Horsford, and Susie Lee, Democrats from Nevada. In the U.S. Senate, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, Democrats from Nevada, and co-sponsored by U.S. Sens.: Cory Booker (Democrat from NJ); Kamala Harris (Democrat from CA); Amy Klobuchar (Democrat from MN); Bernie Sanders (Independent from VT); Elizabeth Warren (Democrat from MA); and Kirsten Gillibrand (Democrat from NY)]

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S. 1985, the STRANDED Act of 2019 (a.k.a. the Sensible, Timely Relief for America's Nuclear Districts' Economic Development Act of 2019). [Sponsored by Tammy Duckworth, Democrat from IL, et al.]

H.R. 5608, the STRANDED Act of 2019 [Sponsored by Bradley Scott Schneider, Democrat from IL, et al.; identical to S. 1985, immediately above]

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H.Res. 805, Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the President and the Secretary of State should ensure that the Government of Canada does not permanently store nuclear waste in the Great Lakes Basin [Sponsored by Dan Kildee, Democrat from MI, John Moolenar, Republican from MI, et al.; identical to S. Res. 470, immediately below]

S.Res. 470, A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the President and the Secretary of State should ensure that the Government of Canada does not permanently store nuclear waste in the Great Lake Basin [Sponsored by Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, Democrats from MI, et al.; identical to H.Res. 805, immediately above]

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*Please note, Beyond Nuclear's support for these bills would include their passage as stand-alone bills, or as part of broader environmental-, health-, and safety-protection legislation. However, their inclusion as sweeteners in dangerously bad bills, like those listed above that Beyond Nuclear opposes, is unacceptable.

Update on January 31, 2020 by admin

What can you do?

Contact your U.S. Representative, and urge opposition to the dangerously bad bills listed above; urge support for the good legislation.

Likewise, you can also contact both your U.S. Senators. Urge them to oppose the bad bills, and to support the good bills.

You can also reach your Congress Members' D.C. offices by calling the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

You can contact your Congress Members' in-district (U.S. Rep.) and in-state (nearest U.S. Senate) offices. Ask for a face-to-face meeting with your Congress Member, or short of that, with their relevant staff on these issues (Energy and Environment Legislative Assistant, or higher up, Legislative Director, Chief of Staff, etc.) Get together with your group's members, your neighbors, family, friends, etc., to meet with your Congress Members' and/or their staff. 

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Lawmakers oppose Lake Huron high-level nuclear waste storage

As reported by MLive, a bipartisan, bicameral resolution opposing high-level radioactive waste dumping near the shoreline of the Great Lakes has been introduced in Congress. The initial sponsors include U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, both Democrats from Michigan, as well as U.S. Representatives Dan Kildee (Democrat-Flint Twp., MI) and (John Moolenar, Republican-Midland, MI).

See the Congress Members' press release, here.

It reports: The resolution is supported by other Democrats and Republicans in the Michigan delegation, including Congressman Fred Upton (MI-06), Congressman Bill Huizenga (MI-02), Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence (MI-14), Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12),  Congressman Paul Mitchell (MI-10), Congressman Jack Bergman (MI-01), Congresswoman Haley Stevens (MI-11), Congressman Andy Levin (MI-09), Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (MI-08), and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-13).

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization, comprised of Canada's three nuclear power utilities, has narrowed the list to three remaining candidate sites for the national high-level radioactive waste dump: two neighboring communities, Huron-Kinloss and South Bruce, near the Lake Huron shore, not far (20-some miles) from Kincardine, Ontario, "home" of the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station's nine reactors, the biggest nuclear power plant on Earth.

Similarly, a growing bicameral, bipartisan "caucus" of congressional Great Lakes protectors -- also led by Stabenow and Kildee, mentioned above -- has for several long years, opposed a Canadian nuclear power industry proposal to bury so-called "low" and highly radioactive "intermediate" level radioactive wastes on the Lake Huron shoreline, at the BNGS itself.

On January 31st, the very nearby Saugeen Ojibwe Nation (whose territory "hosts" BNGS) will vote in a referendum on whether or not to accept Ontario Power Generation's offer of $150 million. If SON accepts the $150 million, OPG will expect the tribal First Nation community to "host" -- forevermore -- the "low" and highly radioactive intermediate level nuclear wastes from 20 reactors across the province.

On October 19, 2018, the Detroit Free Press published a feature length article about the 60,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste putting the Great Lakes at risk, on both sides of the border.

On January 13, 2020, the Chicago Tribune ran a major article about Ojibwe views regarding the sacredness and fragility of their Great Lakes homelands, as well as the radioactive risks they face.

See 2013 and 1990 maps, depicting the radioactive risks to the Great Lakes from most stages of the uranium fuel chain, including dozens of atomic reactors along their shores.

Don't Waste Michigan and other grassroots environmental watchdog groups have opposed these Great Lakes shoreline radioactive waste dumping schemes since they were first floated in 2001. Beyond Nuclear has opposed them since its founding in 2007, including repeated rounds of testimony before Canadian federal nuclear and environmental regulatory agencies over the course of many years.

Learn more about these issues at the website of Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump.

Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman: The Threat of Nuclear Waste

Beyond Nuclear board of directors member Karl Grossman is the host of Enviro Close-Up, a television show produced by EnviroVideo for decades. The latest episode, "The Threat of Nuclear Waste," is an interview between Karl and Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist, Kevin Kamps. The interview focuses on the resistance to proposed high-level radioactive waste dumps targeted at New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, and Ontario's Great Lakes shoreline. Watch the 30 minute program, here.

(Please note a couple of needed corrections. At the 9 minute 58 second mark, Kevin misspoke -- the Ontario Power Generation radioactive waste dumps are targeted at the Lake Huron shoreline, not the Lake Michigan shoreline. And the full name of the Democratic New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands is Stephanie Garcia Richard. Also, the interview was recorded in September 2019, hence the discussion of Trump's Energy Secretary, Rick Perry. Perry resigned December 1st.)

2019 in review: Another successful year of resistance against dangerously bad nuke waste dump schemes -- but the fight very much goes on!

2019 was another year of concerted resistance to the proposed high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain, on Western Shoshone Indian land in Nevada, as well as against the proposed consolidated interim storage facilities (CISFs) targeted at New Mexico and Texas.

To learn more detail, see our website sections about Yucca and CISFs.

Stopping these dumps means blocking Mobile Chernobyl risks nationwide. See our Waste Transportation website section for more detail.

In that sense, 2019 turning to 2020 marks a decade since the Obama administration cancelled the Yucca dump -- but then its Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future recommended CISFs as an urgent priority. So this is an end of decade story, that will continue for a million+ years into the future -- the hazardous persistence of high-level radioactive waste.

By way of update, the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY2020) Appropriations Act that has zero funding for the Yucca dump, and zero funding for CISFs, which is good news. But also contains some bad news -- $25 million for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to undertake "Integrated Waste Management" -- studies, analyses, and site preparation for export of waste -- so also transport prep -- although not for CISF construction/operation. But thankfully, Section 306 was stricken from the Appropriations Act, which would have otherwise allowed DOE to take title (ownership) to commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, at a consolidated interim storage facility, even in the absence of an operating repository. This would gut the legal challenges -- by Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste Michigan et al. (a seven group national grassroots environmental coalition), and Sierra Club -- to this current violation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended (aka current law), as represented by these CISF schemes. So this important precaution in current law -- to avoid a supposedly "interim storage" site from becoming a de facto permanent, surface storage, parking lot dump -- has been protected and preserved, and our side's lawsuits live on to fight another day!