Early 2018 House Vote Expected on Yucca Mountain Bill
As reported by Chris Schneidmiller at ExchangeMonitor.
(See what you can do to urge your U.S. Representative to oppose this, at the bottom of this post.)
The article reports that the bill, H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, could reach the U.S. House floor for a vote as early as this month, or next.
The article's main point is accurate -- the bill is mostly about accelerating the opening of the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada burial dump, by significantly cutting short consideration by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of the State of Nevada's 200+ technical contentions in opposition to the highly controversial dump.
The bill's sponsor, Republican John Shimkus of Illinois, backed off -- for the time being -- from trying to wrest water rights from the State of Nevada, after he met with strong opposition from a number of western state U.S. Reps. Water is precious in the region, so state water rights are fiercely defended. However, he indicated that when the time is right, he would pursue that water grab again in the future.
Yucca Mountain is on Western Shoshone Indian land, under the terms of the 1863 "peace and friendship" Treaty of Ruby Valley. Thus, H.R. 3053's attempt to transfer lands to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) -- as well as those attempts that would someday be pursued to wrest water rights -- fly in the face of Western Shoshone treaty rights. Such treaties are the highest law of the land, equal in stature to the U.S. Constitution itself.
H.R. 3053 would also significantly increase the amount of irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to be buried at the scientifically unsuitable, environmentally racist, non-consent-based, and illegal site. Current law limits the Yucca dump to 70,000 Metric Tons of irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Shimkus would increase this limit to 110,000 Metric Tons. The increase would accelerate the massive release of hazardous radioactive contamination release into groundwater (as well as air), due to the waste's thermal heat, underground water saturation, and rock chemistry, synergistically combining to form a perfect storm of corrosion.
But the article's claim, that "The legislation would allow for construction – but not operation — of one interim waste storage site before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission completes its adjudication of DOE’s long-dormant license application for Yucca Mountain," needs correction. H.R. 3053 would actually allow for the opening of an unlimited number of centralized interim storage sites, although each side would be limited to 10,000 Metric Tons of irradiated nuclear fuel. (While the bill would authorize such centralized interim storage -- currently illegal -- the NRC, again, would the agency in charge of the licensing proceeding for construction and operation.)
The top two targets for centralized interim storage are Holtec/Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance (ELEA) in southeast New Mexico, near the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), and Waste Control Specialists, LLC (WCS) in Andrews County, Texas, directly on the New Mexico state line, less than five miles from Eunice, New Mexico. The two targeted sites are less than 40 miles apart. Thus, this effort is an attempt to turn the New Mexico/Texas borderlands into a nuclear sacrifice zone. This is an environmental justice violation, given the region's large Hispanic population, as well as its pollution from past and current fossil fuel and nuclear industries (in addition to WIPP, WCS is also a national "low-level" radioactive waste dump, and a major uranium enrichment facility also operates in Eunice).
Holtec/ELEA has applied for a permit from NRC to "temporarily store" up to 120,000 Metric Tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, 40,000 Metric Tons more than currently exists in the United States.
WCS, for its part, has applied for a permit to "consolidate" storage on an "interim" basis for 40,000 Metric Tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel.
The grand total for the two centralized interim storage facilities, or monitored retrievable storage sites, is 160,000 Metric Tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, twice what exists in the U.S. presently.
Whether bound for the Yucca burial dump in NV, or the "parking lot" surface storage dumps on the TX/NM borderlands -- at risk of becoming de facto permanent -- highly radioactive, high-hazard, high-risk irradiated nuclear fuel shipments by truck, train, and/or barge, on the roads, rails, and/or waterways, in unprecedented numbers, would begin, and continue for years and decades. These shipments would pass through most states in the Lower 48, including 100+ major cities, through the vast majority of U.S. congressional districts. (See the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Project's analyses of shipment routes, and numbers of shipments, bound for the Yucca dump; and see Beyond Nuclear's Waste Transportation website section for more info., including potential barge shipment routes.)
WHAT YOU CAN DO!
Please contact your U.S. Representative, and urge opposition to H.R. 3053! You can call your U.S. Rep. via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 225-3121, by following the instructions given over the phone.
You can also look up your U.S. Rep.'s direct phone numbers, fax numbers, web forms, and snail mail addresses, at this website: see the upper right, FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE; enter your zip code; and click LOOK UP.
Please spread the word! Urge everyone you know to take action!
WHAT MORE YOU CAN DO!
There is still time to sign your group onto this letter -- another update will be delivered to U.S. House offices before the bill goes to the floor for a vote.
To sign on, there’s a google form here (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflR0_uHQfQ9Ds4JRklF1VmtdbtxRVcDJzLIoOcn5633Vk2mA/viewform?usp=sf_link) that NRDC would prefer folks use, or else email Sean Alcorn at NRDC <salcorn@nrdc.org> your name, title, organization name, city and state.
Individuals can also take action:
Sierra Club has a webform you can fill out and email to your U.S. Rep.
SEED Coalition of Texas has launched a CREDO petition you can sign.
January 3, 2018