Yucca Mountain

Yucca Mountain, the Nevada-based, scientifically flawed and politically unjust proposed high-level radioactive waste repository has now been canceled. However, pro-nuclear forces in Congress have not abandoned Yucca and funding is still allocated to the project.

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Tuesday
Feb112020

Coalition of more than a thousand environmental groups committed to keeping Yucca dump dead!

Jim Day political cartoon published by the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2010On Thursday, February 6, 2020, President Trump announced he would request zero funding for Fiscal Year 2021, for the proposed Yucca Mountain dump on Western Bands of the Shoshone Indian Nation lands in Nevada.

But the Yucca dump has been declared dead previously, only to have proponents attempt to resurrect the zombie! President Obama cancelled the dump proposal in 2010 (see image, left -- and be sure to count the toes!). U.S. House Republicans like Fred Upton (R-MI) and John Shimkus (R-IL) have tried ever since to restart Yucca licensing at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. President Trump, for the past three years, has unsuccessfully requested hundreds of millions of dollars of annual Yucca dump funding. This, despite the fact that Trump indicated on the campaign trail in 2015 to 2016 that he would respect Nevada on the Yucca dump issue. He did the exact opposite from 2017 till last Thursday!

As reported by the Aiken Standard:

U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, a Nevada Democrat, last week suggested the president could be playing "political games."

"When you ran in 2016, you said you opposed Yucca. Then, once elected, you wanted to fund it," Lee wrote on Twitter, responding to the president. "Now, election season is here and you're against Yucca again."

If and when Trump changes his mind (yet again), back to pro-Yucca dump, a coalition of more than a thousand environmental groups is committed to keeping the Yucca dump dead -- just as they have for 33 long years, ever since the "Screw Nevada bill" of 1987!

And many hundreds of environmental and environmental justice groups are committed to blocking consolidated interim storage facilities, as currently targeted at New Mexico and Texas, just as they did the CISF targeted at Utah in the past.

Sunday
Feb092020

Trump dumps Yucca. An election year ploy?

As posted at the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Project's What's News? page:

Updated - Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Updated - Monday, February 10, 2020
Updated - Saturday, February 08, 2020

Updated - Friday, February 07, 2020

Los Angeles Times - Trump takes Yucca Mountain off the table. What's that mean for San Onofre nuclear waste? - By Rob Nikolewski

Updated - Thursday, February 06, 2020

Updated - Friday, January 31, 2020

Radwaste Monitor - No Request for Yucca Mountain in Next White House Budget: Experts - By Chris Schneidmiller
Friday
Feb072020

Trump tweets reversal of push for Nevada nuclear waste dump

As reported by AP.

The Hill has also reported on this story.

So has Bloomberg News.

Please note that Trump seems to have seen the light, just in time for the November 2020 elections!

Wednesday
Feb052020

2/5/20: Beyond Nuclear on Sputnik International's "Loud & Clear"

Ian Zabarte speaks at a Native American Nuclear Issues Forum he organized at University of Nevada at Las Vegas.https://www.spreaker.com/user/radiosputnik/beyond-nuclear-with-kevin-kamps_84

This episode features Ian Zabarte, Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation of Indians, and Secretary of the Native Community Action Council, based in Las Vegas, NV.

Ian discusses the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863 between the Western Shoshone and the United States of America, its violation by nuclear weapons testing in Nevada since 1951, and the further threat of high-level radioactive waste dumping at Yucca Mountain. All the environmental justice violations must stop!

Listen to an earlier joint appearance on Sputnik's "Loud & Clear" by Ian Zabarte and Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, below. Also posted there is a write up Sputnik did about Ian's revelations on the show.

Friday
Jan312020

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.

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