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ARTICLE ARCHIVE

Radioactive Waste

No safe, permanent solution has yet been found anywhere in the world - and may never be found - for the nuclear waste problem. In the U.S., the only identified and flawed high-level radioactive waste deep repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada has been canceled. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an end to the production of nuclear waste and for securing the existing reactor waste in hardened on-site storage.

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Tuesday
Nov152016

Radioactive Russian roulette on the highways: Unprecedented truck shipments of highly radioactive liquid wastes

Investigative reporter Frank Fraboni of ABC 13 News/WLOS in Western North Carolina has filed the following reports, regarding unprecedented shipments of highly radioactive liquid waste from Chalk River Nuclear Lab, Ontario, Canada to Savannah River Site, South Carolina, U.S.A. -- potentially through Asheville, North Carolina, the setting for these reports:

Special Report (Part 1): Opponents say 'mobile Chernobyl' threatens North Carolina mountains (featuring Mary Olson of Nuclear Information and Resource Service -- Southeast, based in Asheville, NC);

Special Report (Part 2): Trucking uranium through the mountains (featuing Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear).

Tuesday
Nov152016

Beyond Nuclear on Radio EcoShock re: Mobile Chernobyls & parking lot dumps

Host Alex Smith of Radio EcoShock interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Specialist, Kevin Kamps, re: the proposal for so-called "centralized interim storage" of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at Waste Control Specialists, LLC (WCS) in Andrews County, Texas. Listen to the interview from the 32:00 minute to 52:15 minute mark in the recording.

(Please note this correction: The plutonium-contaminated waste barrel burst at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico occurred on Valentine's Day, 2014, not 2012.)

(Smith interviews U.K. professor Kevin Anderson before that, regarding the danger of counting on yet-to-be-developed technologies for reducing global warming gases in the atmosphere, in current plans to avert climate catastrophe. Smith and Anderson compare and contrast the technological hubris of such optimistic assumptions in the climate realm, with that of the nuclear power industry and its unsolved radioactive waste problem.

Then, in the last segment of the program, Smith discusses Robert Mercer, a billionaire climate denier who donated more campaign contributions towards Donald J. Trump's successful bid for the White House than any other single individual.)

Monday
Nov142016

Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Energy Education: Nuclear Power Is Not "Green Energy": It Is a Fount of Atomic Waste

Arnie GundersenArnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education, has published an article at Truthout: "Nuclear Power Is Not 'Green Energy': It Is a Fount of Atomic Waste."

Gundersen serves as expert witness for Beyond Nuclear, in both its resistance to the Fermi 3 proposed new reactor in Michigan (re: Quality Assurance), as well as its resistance to a 20-year license extension at Davis-Besse, Ohio (re: steam generator replacements).

Thursday
Nov102016

Radioactive waste: Webinar this evening on HLRW "centralized" interim storage & transport risks

On Thurs., Nov. 10 from 8-9:30 PM Eastern, presenters from Beyond Nuclear, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition, and Nuclear Information and Resource Service, will lead a Webinar focused on the dangers of so-called "centralized interim storage," as well as the risks of shipping irradiated nuclear fuel by road, rail, and waterway. Beyond Nuclear's presentation will be based on its testimony before a U.S. House hearing a year ago. The Webinar is pre-event preparation for a national grassroots strategy summit on high-level radioactive waste, to be held in Chicago, IL on Dec. 2-4. The summit is intended to analyze this week's presidential and congressional election results, to devise strategies and tactics to block de facto permanent parking lot dumps (such as the one targeted at Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Andrews County, west Texas), as well as to keep the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada dumpsite dead, despite a long-simmering Republican campaign to resurrect it. Both industry-friendly schemes will now intensify on Capitol Hill in January; either one would launch unprecedented numbers of high-risk Mobile Chernobyls through most states (See WCS-bound shipment routes, left; or see larger map, here). Please pre-register for the Webinar to receive instructions on how to view/hear it, and submit your registration form for the Chicago summit ASAP, before all available participant slots are filled!

Thursday
Oct272016

Despite setbacks, Beyond Nuclear and allies continue to challenge high-level radioactive waste generation, storage, transport, and dumping!

Maps showing the national and state maps for commerical irradiated nuclear fuel railway routes to WCS.Despite setbacks, Beyond Nuclear and our allies are not backing down on high-level radioactive waste.

First, the setbacks. On June 3rd, a three-judge D.C. Ciruit Court of Appeals panel [including Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh, nominated by President Donald J. Trump in July 2018 to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court] issued an outrageous ruling against us, and our environmental coalition partners, instead backing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) absurd "Nuclear Waste Confidence" (as in Con Game) policies. Beyond Nuclear responded to the outrageous ruling on June 6th, and the coalition appealed en banc, to the full 13-judge D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, on July 18th.

Incredibly, on August 8th, the full 13-judge D.C. Circuit simply supported the outrageous ruling.

But we've not let these injustices slow down our challenges to high-level radioactive waste risks and illegalities.

On Wednesday, Oct. 26th, Beyond Nuclear and allies (Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Public Citizen, and SEED Coalition) sent a letter to NRC, urging it stop reviewing a license application by Waste Control Specialists, LLC (WCS) to construct and operate a de facto permanent parking lot dump for commercial irradiated nuclear fuel in Andrews County, west Texas. (See maps of national and Texas transport routes to WCS; see a larger version here.) This is required, because the application, and its review, are illegal, in several regards.

On Thursday, Oct. 27th, the environmental coalition issued a press release.

Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, was quoted:

“By requiring a permanent deep geological repository to be operating before centralized interim storage could be opened, Congress wanted to prevent the very real danger of a de facto permanent parking lot dump – a nuclear waste storage site that would be designed for the short-term but be there forever," said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist, Beyond Nuclear. He added: “WCS is a cynical shell game and taxpayers are sure to lose. Congress was right that liability for the costs of storing commercial irradiated nuclear fuel belongs with the generators and should not be shifted onto the backs of the American public.”

On all of these high-level radioactive waste regulatory and legal matters, Beyond Nuclear and its environmental coalition allies are served by legal counsel Diane Curran of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisenberg, LLP of Washington, D.C., as well as Mindy Goldstein of Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.