TX AG's federal lawsuit seeks to force opening of Yucca dump

As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal, and the Texas Tribune, TX AG Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit at the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans, seeking to force the U.S. federal government to complete the licensing procedding for the proposed (but long abandoned) national dumpsite for 70,000 metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, as well as nuclear weapons complex high-level radioactive waste.

State of Texas Attorney General Paxton announced the lawsuit in a press release posted at his website, and provides a link to the lawsuit.

Yucca dump licensing proceeding would cost nearly $2 billion, take up to five years

As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal, in a presentation to Nevada state legislators, Robert Halstead, Director of the Agency for Nuclear Projects, estimated that a resumption of the long-stalled U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing proceeding would cost $1.66 billion in public funds, and take four to five years to complete.

The administration of Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-NV) stands prepared to fend off any attempt to revive the canceled Yucca dump. The State Agency for Nuclear Projects already has 218 legal and technical contentions admitted for full hearing on the merits before NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. Halstead predicts that the State will have 30 to 50 additional contentions, based on new information, should the licensing proceeding resume.

The most recent cost estimate by the U.S. Department of Energy, to construct and operate the Yucca dump for an initial limited time period, had a price tag approaching $100 billion (yes, with a B). But the irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste will remain hazardous for a million years, EPA has admitted (under hard won court order).

Where Will The Waste From Palisades Nuclear Plant Go?

As reported by WMUK. Beyond Nuclear is quoted:

Without something like Yucca Mountain, Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear worries that these dumps won’t be temporary at all:

“The current top target in the country is Andrews County in Texas which is 40 percent Latin American, a high percentage of low-income residents. So it’s a real environmental justice issue. And it could just get stuck there on the surface and this material can’t stay on the surface forever. If it ever gets out into the environment - and erosion, weatherization would do that over time - then it would be a radiological disaster.”

Moving nuclear waste across the country to these dumps could be risky too - which is why Kamps says he’s not in favor of places like Yucca Mountain either.

Lead Yucca dump opponent, Harry Reid, bids farewell to U.S. Senate

As reported by the Washington Post.

Reid (Democrat from Nevada) served in the U.S. Senate since 1987, and rose to become Democratic Leader, from 2005 to 2016, the third longest such tenure in U.S. history.

He was a rookie U.S. Senator when the "Screw Nevada" bill of 1987 was passed, targeting Yucca Mountain as the country's high-level radioactive waste dump.

But they messed with the wrong rookie Senator. A former boxer, Reid devoted the next 30 years of his career to successfully blocking that dump.

Bloomberg News: "Trump Advisers Eye Reviving Nevada Yucca Nuclear Waste Dump"

Political cartoon by Tom EngelhardtThe President-Elect Donald J. Trump parade of bad nuclear ideas has already begun. Bloomberg News reports that "Trump advisors eye reviving Nevada nuclear waste dump."

Over the past 30 years, since the "Screw Nevada bill" of 1987 was initially rammed through Congress, more than a thousand environmental, environmental justice, and public interest groups, representing every state in the union, have successfully staved off the proposal to open a national high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, located on Western Shoshone Indian land.

In 2009-2010, President Obama declared the Yucca dump "unworkable" -- although scientifically unsuitable and environmentally unjust would have been better -- and wisely cancelled the project. U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), long-serving U.S. Senate Democratic Leader, devoted his career to de-funding and blocking the Yucca dump.

But both Obama and Reid are leaving office in January. The likes of U.S. Reps. Fred Upton (R-MI) and John Shimkus (R-IL), on the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee, have long sought to revive the Yucca dump, on behalf of the lobbyists from the nuclear power industry. Now the President-Elect Trump administration seems amenable to "screwing Nevada," all over again, despite the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future's clear recommendation that radioactive waste dump siting must be "consent-based."

What Can You Do?

Contact your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative (both those currently serving, and/or taking office in the new Congress in January). Urge them to keep the Yucca nuclear waste dump dead. You can phone your Congress members via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

You can also consider attending the Dec. 2-4 national grassroots radioactive waste strategy summit in Chicago. If you can come, please register ASAP (Beyond Nuclear serves on the planning committee for this event).

You can also attend a Webinar, sponsored by Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), re: Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, to be held on Thursday, November 17, 2016 from 8 to 9:30 PM Eastern time. The presenters will be Dr. Gordon Thompson of Institute for Resource and Security Studies (IRSS), and Donna Gilmore of San Onofre Safety. They will discuss: High Burnup Irradiated Nuclear Fuel; Aging Irradiated Nuclear Fuel; Characteristics and Dangers of Storage Pools and Casks; Robust or Hardened On-Site Storage; and Reprocessing. To register for the Webinar, please go to:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4295273338593027843

Please note that this Webinar is being conducted in preparation for the Chicago strategy summit in early December. If you are unable to attend the live Webinar, a recording will be made available in the near future. Recordings of two previous Webinars will also be made available in the near future: the first, held on Nov. 3rd, was conducted by Diane D'Arrigo of NIRS, giving an Introduction to Nuclear Power and the Uranium Fuel Chain; the second, held on Nov. 10th, was conducted by Karen Hadden of SEED Coalition in Texas, Dr. Arjun Makhihani of IEER and Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear, both based in Takoma Park, MD, discussing Centralized "Interim" Storage (de facto permanent parking lot dumps) and Irradiated Nuclear Fuel Transport Risks (Mobile Chernobyl). Watch the Beyond Nuclear weekly email bulletin for an announcement on how to view these recordings, as well as for further updates on the Yucca dump, centralized interim storage (de facto permanent parking lot dumps), Mobile Chernobyl risks, etc.

To learn more about all these issues, see the various sub-tabs under Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste website section.

(Thank you to political cartoonist Tom Engelhardt for the art work above, as featured in the Beyond Nuclear pamphlet by board member Kay Drey entitled "The Lethal Legacy of the Atomic Age.")