OH and MN NRC nuke waste con public comment meetings rescheduled for Dec. 2 & 4, respectively; comment deadline now Dec. 20

North Anna watchdog Erica Grey, and Diane D'Arrigo of NIRS, unfurl a banner at NRC's first Nuke Waste Con Game meeting, held Oct. 1st in the NRC Commissioners conference room at NRC HQ in Rockville, MD. Photo by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps.As posted at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Nuclear Waste Confidence Directorate website, the public comment meetings on NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS), to be held in Perrysburg, OH near Toledo, and Minnetonka, MN near the Twin Cities, have been rescheduled for December 2nd and 4th, respectively.

NRC has also announced that the deadline for public comments on the "Nuke Waste Con Game," or "Nuke Waste Con Job," as critics call it (see photo, left), has been extended till December 20th.

The reason for the changes is the October government shutdown, which caused a postponement of the public comment meetings.

Please see Beyond Nuclear's previous action alerts for how you can plug into the public comment meeting nearest you, and how you can submit vitally needed written comments anytime between now and December 20th!

Transport risks and economic pressure rear their ugly heads at DGR hearings

As reported by the Toronto Star's John Spears, in an article entitled "Burning truck hauling nuclear load flies under the radar," a load of uranium hexafluoride bound from Canada to the U.S. attached to a semi truck that caught fire was abandoned on the side of the interstate for a period of time. The incident was never reported to state or federal nuclear authorities in the U.S., nor to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

The incident takes on added urgency in light of Ontario Power Generation's proposal to construct and operate a deep geological repository (DGR) for so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes from 20 reactors across Ontario at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario, about 50 miles across Lake Huron from Michigan. The DGR, or DUD, as critics have sarcastically dubbed it (for Deep Underground Dump), would be located just 3/4ths of a mile from the Lake Huron shoreline. The Great Lakes serve as the drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

After all, those LLRWs and ILRWs from 12 other Ontario reactors must be transported to Bruce (where there are 8 operable commercial reactors, plus an additional early prototype reactor, long shutdown), if they are to be buried at the DUD.

In addition, a national high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) dump is being targeted at the Kincardine area, perhaps even at the DGR itself. A half-dozen Kincardine area municipalities, disproportionately populated by Bruce Nuclear workers, have raised their hands as potential "hosts" for a "DGR" for HLRWs from all the commercial atomic reactors across Canada (around two dozen), including from New Brunswick and Quebec. Those HLRWs would also have to be transported to the Lake Huron shoreline, if a Kincardine-area dumpsite is chosen, whether it be by truck, train, and/or barge upon the Great Lakes themselves.

A Bruce Nuclear proposal to ship 64 city bus-sized radioactive steam generators by boat on the Great Lakes was recently cancelled due to intense grassroots activism that extended from the U.S., to Canada, Native American First Nations, and even to European shores. The so-called "low level" radioactive wastes (despite containing five isotopes of ultra-hazardous plutonium) were bound for Sweden, to be "recycled" into consumer products.

In addition to the Bruce Nuclear workers living in the Kincardine-area municipalities, Bruce Nuclear Generating Station and OPG hold powerful economic sway in the region.  As reported by the Globe and Mail's Shawn McCarthy in an article entitled "OPG pressed non-profits to back Bruce County nuclear-waste plant," OPG pressured nearly two-dozen area non-profits to speak out in support of the controversial DUD. OPG's implicit threat to the non-profits' funding streams seems obvious. Area non-profits have come to depend on OPG's relatively large funding donations, although, relative to its profits, OPG's charitable donations are a vanishingly small fraction of its revenues.

In fact, OPG has promised a total of $25 million to Kincardine and neighboring towns, but only if they continue to adequately support and promote the DGR. That money began to flow around 2005. OPG gets to decide if a recipient municipality is performing enthusiastically enough in promotion of the DGR. Again, the implicit threat is that the promised funding will be yanked.

The federal Canadian Joint Review Panel environmental assessment hearings have now ended in Kincardine, after several weeks of testimony.

The Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition now has over 40,000 signatures. If you haven't signed it yet, please do. And please spread the word to everyone you know.

NRC re-schedules IL and CA Nuke Waste Con Game public comment meetings postponed by govt. shutdown

North Anna watchdog Erica Grey, and Diane D'Arrigo of NIRS, unfurl a banner at NRC's first Nuke Waste Con Game meeting, held Oct. 1st in the NRC Commissioners conference room at NRC HQ in Rockville, MD. Photo by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps.As reported by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Nuclear Waste Confidence Directorate, in regards to the disruption of the previously scheduled, hard-won, court-ordered "Nuke Waste Con Game" draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) public comment meetings:

"The Chelmsford [MA], Tarrytown [NY], Charlotte [NC], Orlando [FL], and November 14 NRC headquarters [Rockville, MD] meetings are taking place as planned.

The NRC has rescheduled the Oak Brook, Illinois meeting for Tuesday, November 12; the Carlsbad, California meeting for Monday, November 18; and the San Luis Obispo meeting for Wednesday, November 20. The NRC is still working on rescheduling the Perrysburg, Ohio, and Minnetonka, Minnesota meetings. The NRC will communicate dates for rescheduled meetings to interested groups and individuals through the Waste Confidence webpage and the WCOutreach@nrc.gov e-mail list."

Please see last week's Beyond Nuclear weekly bulletin web posting on how to submit comments, either orally at public meetings, or in written form at any time, to NRC regarding its Nuke Waste Con Game.

U.S. Sens. Stabenow and Levin (D-MI) join resistance to unprecedented Great Lakes radioactive waste dump, call for State Dept. action

U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, Democrats from Michigan who chair, respectively, the U.S. Senate Committees on Armed Services and AgricultureThe nearly 40,000 signatories of the Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition, the millions of Great Lakes residents represented by city, county, and state (or provincial) resolutions, and the scores of environmental groups on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border who oppose Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) insane proposal to bury 20 reactors' so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes 3/4ths of a mile from the Lake Huron shoreline have just been joined by some powerful new allies: Michigan's U.S. Senators, Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin (photo, left).

As reported by the Port Huron Times Herald, not only did the two members of the Democratic leadership of the U.S. Senate (Stabenow chairs the Agriculture Committee, Levin the Armed Services Committee) send staff to testify at the ongoing Canadian federal Joint Review Panel overseeing OPG's Environmental Assessment on the proposed DUD (Dave Martin of Greenpeace Canada's sarcastic nickname standing for Deep Underground Dump, instead of OPG's preferred DGR, for Deep Geologic Repository), they also called upon U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to look into the matter, including urging him to request that the International Joint Commission (IJC) advise the U.S. and Canadian governments on this unprecedented risk to the Great Lakes, drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations.

Stabenow and Levin made a similar move in 2002, calling on then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to investigate the risks of Ontario's Bruce Nuclear Generating Station storing a whopping 2,000 dry casks of high-level radioactive waste on the Lake Huron shore. (The DUD's entrance tunnel would be located immediately adjacent to the ever-growing dry cask storage facility at Bruce.) Unfortunately, Powell blew off the concern, with an underling flippantly declaring the Bruce Nuclear proposal safe.

Stabenow and Levin were more successful, however, when they joined with five additional Democratic U.S. Senators from Great Lakes states (Durbin from IL; Casey from PA; Schumer and Gillibrand from NY), led by Russ Feingold of WI, to question Bruce Nuclear's proposal to ship 64 radioactive steam generators by boat on the Great Lakes, in order to "recycle" them into consumer products in Sweden. Bruce Nuclear backed away from the proposal earlier this year, due to fierce resistance by Mohawk and other First Nations along the transport route. (The Saugeen Ojibwe Nations neighboring Bruce Nuclear are playing a vital role as skeptical stakeholders in the DUD proceeding, such as urging that OPG and its Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) come clean regarding whether or not high-level radioactive waste would be buried in the DUD, or a second nearby DUD. So far, the Joint Review Panel has rejected such calls for transparency from OPG.)

What can you do to help stop the DUD? Kay Cumbow of Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination and the Sierra Club's Blue Water Chapter, who resides near Port Huron, just over 100 miles from Bruce Nuclear and the proposed DUD, has put out an action alert, calling for expressions of thanks to U.S. Sens. Stabenow and Levin, as well as calls (or letters, emails, etc.) to your own U.S. Senators and Representatives, calling upon them to take action to protect the Great Lakes against these unprecedented proposals to dump radioactive wastes upon the shoreline of 20% of the world's surface fresh water.

She writes:

"Thanks to everyone who called Senator Stabenow and Levin, and our U.S. Representatives, too. Please call Senators Stabenow and Levin and thank them for taking action to protect thousands of generations of people in Michigan and in the Great Lakes watershed, who utterly depend on these irreplaceable fresh waters. You can call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected with their offices.
You can also call your U.S. Representatives at this number as well, and ask them to also take action. The more federal voices we have, the greater chance we have of stopping this madness.

If you live in another state, please urge your federal legislators (202-224-3121 is the Capitol switchboard) to join with Michigan's Senators to call on Sec. of State John Kerry to take action to stop this dump and protect these international waters."

In addition, if you haven't already, please sign the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition, and share it with everyone you know! Thanks!

The following news outlets have also reported on this story: MLive; The Hill; Detroit News; Toronto Star. The Toronto Star has also reported in follow-up that Ontario's Environment Minister has, thus far, ducked the question about Sens. Stabenow and Levin's request for an IJC investigation.

Post government shutdown, NRC Nuke Waste Con Game DGEIS public comment hearings to resume, and deadline to be extended

North Anna watchdog Erica Grey, and Diane D'Arrigo of NIRS, unfurl a banner at NRC's first Nuke Waste Con Game meeting, held Oct. 1st in the NRC Commissioners conference room at NRC HQ in Rockville, MD. Photo by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps.Today, NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence Directorate spokesperson, Sarah Lopas, confirmed in an email to NIRS that the Chelmsford, MA, Tarrytown, NY, Charlotte, NC, Orlando, FL, and Rockville, MD public comment meetings, scheduled between Oct. 28th and Nov. 14th, are again "a go" now that the federal government is no longer shutdown.

The meetings are for the public to comment on NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS).

In June, 2012, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ordered NRC to undertake an EIS on the risks of high-level radioactive waste storage. This hard-won victory for public health, safety, and the environment is due to a successful legal challenge brought by a coalition of environmental groups and states.

If you plan to attend these public comment meetings, NRC requests that you pre-register if you plan to make oral public comments. Only the NRC HQ public comment meeting in Rockville, MD on Nov. 14th will provide online, webcast coverage, and the option of phoning-in to make oral public comment; all other public comment meetings must be attend in-person.

Sarah Lopas also indicated that the public meetings previously scheduled between Oct. 7th and 24th for CA, MN, OH, and IL -- all postponed due to the government shutdown -- will now be re-scheduled, at the same previously announced locations. The new dates and times will be announced at a later point by NRC, perhaps as early as next week.

The NRC Nuclear Waste Confidence Diretorate plans to extend the public comment deadline beyond Nov. 27th, provided the NRC Commission approves the extension. The new deadline will be announced by NRC at a later point, likely next week.

NRC's announcements re: rescheduled public comment meetings and the new deadline for written public comments will likely crystallize next week. NRC will communicate these updates via its website, as well as via emailed announcements, and the publication of revised Federal Register notices. As soon as Beyond Nuclear obtains these updates, we too will publicize them.

In the meantime, please continue to submit your public comments to NRC via email, webform, fax, and/or snail mail.

You can submit as many public comments as you want, between now and the final public comment deadline.

Sample comments, which you can use to help you write your own, have been provided by Beyond Nuclear and NIRS.

At a press conference on Oct. 2nd, D.C. attorney Diane Curran, and experts Dr. Gordon Thompson (President of Institute for Resource and Security Studies) and Bob Alvarez (Senior Scholar, Institute for Policy Studies), also provided insights into the potentially catastrophic risks of high-level radioactive waste storage pool fires, which NRC is currently ignoring. Curran and the experts are preparing sample comments, on behalf of an environmental coalition comprised of two dozen groups, including Beyond Nuclear, so watch for those in weeks ahead, as well.