Radioactive Skeletons in Holtec International's Closet...
[Also see Nancy Vann's "rap sheet" on Holtec and its decommissioning consortium partner, SNC-Lavalin of Canada, linked at Beyond Nuclear's SNC-Lavalin exposé -- "Radioactive and Other Skeletons in the Closet annotated bibliography.]
Articles, and other posts, listed in backwards chronological order:
Posted August 20, 2020 --
Renewables, not nuke waste! Speak out against environmental injustice
On Aug. 19, backed by solar panels, NM Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham's speech to the Democratic National Convention embraced NM's multicultural identity, as a majority minority (Hispanic, Native American) state, as its greatest strength. Yet, Holtec is targeting this majority minority, multicultural "Land of Enchantment" for the world's largest high-level radioactive waste dump, blatant environmental racism. Holtec is aided and abetted in this environmental injustice by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission itself, which is complicit in Holtec's illegal license application. But this is not NRC's first radioactive racism -- in 2005 to 2006, when NRC rubber-stamped the Private Fuel Storage, LLC license application for a CISF (consolidated interim storage facility) targeted at the tiny, low income Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah, Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist Kevin Kamps (then serving at NIRS, Nuclear Information and Resource Service), dubbed the agency the "Nuclear Racism Commission," in an interview with the San Francisco Tribune. Learn more about the ultimately successful resistance to the PFS CISF at this archived NIRS website. Please note that the containers at PFS would have been provided by none other than Holtec. And PFS first targeted the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation in south central NM, not far from Holtec/ELEA's current targeted site at Laguna Gatuna, halfway between Hobbs and Carlsbad.
Posted August 18, 2020 --
Per the entry immediately above, NRC is not only enabling Holtec's environmental racism, but actively supporting it. See NM US Senators', Heinrich and Udall, push back against NRC's broken promise to hold five in-person public comment meetings across NM re: the Holtec CISF DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement):
NM's U.S. Senators urge NRC Chairman to keep promise to hold five in-person public comment meetings across the state
In a letter sent to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki on August 18, 2020, New Mexico's two Democratic U.S. Senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, have urged that the agency keep its prior promise to hold five, in-person, public comment meetings across the state, re: NRC's Holtec/ELEA CISF DEIS (irradiated nuclear fuel Consolidated Interim Storage Facility Draft Environmental Impact Statement).
Posted August 12, 2020 --
Fort Worth doesn't need dangerous nuclear waste rolling through on Tarrant rail lines
Op-ed in the Star-Telegram, written by Peggy Hendon and Linda Hanratty.
Peggy Hendon is president of the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County. Linda Hanratty is the group’s environmental chairwoman.
Compounding the dangers of transporting Holtec's containers is the widespread violation of quality assurance standards inherent in the design and manufacture of Holtec containers, as revealed by industry and NRC whistleblowers (see Shirani and Landsman entry from 2004, below). Neither NRC nor Holtec have done little to nothing to rectify these longstanding QA violations.
Posted August 11, 2020 --
Beyond Nuclear comments to the New Mexico Environment Department, opposed to the expanded Forever WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant)
See Beyond Nuclear's public comments, posted at our Repositories website section.
See the backgrounder, "WIPP History: The Forever WIPP Expansion & the New Shaft Permit Modification," dated July 20, 2020, posted at the CCNS (Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety) website.
The WIPP site is only 16 miles from the proposed Holtec/ELEA highly radioactive waste consolidated interim storage facility (CISF). And just 40 miles from there, is the Waste Control Specialists national "low" level radioactive waste dump, and propsed CISF, in Andrews County, west Texas, immediately upon the New Mexico border at Eunice. This attempt to turn the majority minority State of New Mexico, and the majority Hispanic and Native American southeast of NM, into a national radioactive waste sacrifice zone, is an outrageous environmental injustice. Learn more about the CISFs at our Centralized Storage website section.
Holtec, targeting the Laguna Gatuna site just 16 miles from WIPP, would thus compound the environmental injustices already suffered by the State of New Mexico, and its majority minority (Hispance, Native American) residents.
Posted August 10, 2020 --
As mentioned above in the August 12, 2020 entry, NRC is in cahoots with Holtec's environmentally unjust CISF scheme. NM's US Senators have pushed back against NRC's broken promise to hold five in-person public comment meetings across NM re: the agency's Holtec CISF DEIS. NRC announced the breaking of its promise, below:
NRC Schedules Webinars to Present Draft Environmental Findings on Proposed Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility in New Mexico
[See the NRC press release, below. Note that NRC is defying the united New Mexican U.S. Congressional Delegation, which has demanded five in-person public comment meetings, once safe to hold post-pandemic, across the state.
Note that in early April, 2020, letters from 14 U.S. House Democrats (all committee chairs), as well as 25 U.S. Senate Democrats (five of them had just been running for president not long before), to OMB (White House Office of Management and Budget), demanded that the Trump administration executive branch agencies, including NRC, cease and desist with any public participation (including public comment) deadlines, till the pandemic emergency is over.
Also, environmental coalition requests to NRC, for suspension of this public comment proceeding, and a significant extension of its deadline, has been violated by this agency decision. NRC is slamming through this public comment proceeding, amidst a highly infectious, deadly, viral pandemic emergency.]
Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: 20-041 August 10, 2020
CONTACT: David McIntyre, 301-415-8200
NRC Schedules Webinars to Present Draft Environmental Findings on Proposed Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility in New Mexico
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold four webinars in late August and early September to present its draft environmental findings and receive comments on Holtec International’s proposed consolidated spent nuclear fuel storage facility in New Mexico. Webinars were previously held on June 23 and July 9.
The NRC remains committed to opportunities for the public to inform the agency’s decisions related to its draft Environmental Impact Statement on Holtec’s proposal. In 2018, the NRC staff held one webinar and five in-person meetings in New Mexico. This fall, the agency planned similar public meetings in New Mexico; however, in-person meetings during the comment period will not be possible because of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The series of additional webinars will allow the NRC staff to continue its public outreach under the current circumstances, and to make a well-informed and timely regulatory decision. The public also will be able to submit comments through U.S. mail, email or online.
Information for the additional webinars will be posted on the NRC’s Public Meetings webpage. They will be held at different times of the day to maximize opportunities for the public to participate. The webinars are tentatively scheduled for Aug. 20 from 6–9 p.m., Aug. 25 from 2–5 p.m., Aug. 26 from 6–9 p.m., and Sept. 2 from 11 a.m.–2 p.m. All times are Eastern.
Holtec submitted its application for a consolidated interim storage facility for commercial spent nuclear fuel on March 30, 2017. The draft EIS was published in March for a 60-day public comment period, which has been extended twice because of the COVID-19 public health emergency, for a total comment period of 180 days.
Comments will be accepted through Sept. 22, including by mail to the Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; email at Holtec-CISFEIS@nrc.gov; and online at the federal government’s rulemaking website, www.regulations.gov, using Docket ID NRC-2018-0052. Information about the NRC’s review of the Holtec application is available on the NRC website, including the draft EIS, reader’s guides in English and Spanish, and a detailed explanation of how to submit comments.
Posted July 31, 2020 --
As Beyond Nuclear and others have argued for years, Holtec's CISF scheme is illegal. But Holtec's lobbyists have been crawling over Capitol Hill for years, trying to get that illegality smoothed over, by getting Congress to change the law. Civil rights icon John Lewis voted against a bill on May 10, 2018, H.R. 3053, that would have made Holtec's illegal CISF scheme, suddenly legal, at great risk to the majority minority (Hispance, Native American) State of New Mexico. On May 8, 2002, Lewis also voted against the Yucca dump, targeted at Western Shoshone land in Nevada. Holtec and NRC both flippantly, outrageously assume the Yucca dump will one day take the CISF inventory for permanent disposal, compounding the environmental racism and illegality of the schemes (Yucca belongs to the Western Shoshone by treaty rights, the highest law of the land, equal in stature to the U.S. Constitution itself):
Congressman John Lewis's votes against environmentally unjust radioactive waste dumps
As the Honorable U.S. Representative John Robert Lewis (Democrat-Georgia-5th) was laid to rest in power yesterday, it is fitting to remember his good environmental justice votes against radioactively racist high-level radioactive waste dumps in the past.
On May 10, 2018, Congressman Lewis voted against H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2018. He was one of only 72 U.S. Reps. to vote against the bill on the House floor; 340 U.S. Reps. voted for it. H.R. 3053 would have greased the skids for the opening of the permanent repository for highly radioactive wastes at Yucca Mountain, Nevada -- Western Shoshone land. In addition, it would have authorized so-called consolidated interim storage facilities targeted at a majority Hispanic region of the New Mexico/Texas borderlands, not far from the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation. Fortunately, the U.S. Senate never took up the legislation that session, so it did not become law. (Learn more about the House floor vote, and the legislation, here.)
However, a nearly identical bill, H.R. 2699, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, did pass subcommittee and full committee on the U.S. House side last year. Although it has not (yet) gone to the House floor for an up or down vote, it has been taken up on the Senate side (S. 2917). We must remain vigilant and resist its passage into law. (Learn more, here.)
And on May 8, 2002, Congressman Lewis voted against Joint Resolution 87, the override of Nevada's veto against the Yucca Mountain dump. (See the NIRS press release from that day, here.) Only 117 U.S. Reps. voted against the override; 306 voted in favor of it. The U.S. Senate followed suit, voting 60 to 39 to override Nevada's veto on July 9, 2002. Despite this, the Yucca Mountain dump has been staved off, led by the resistance of the Western Shoshone and a thousand environmental groups, as well as the efforts of the State of Nevada and its U.S. Congressional delegation. The Obama administration cancelled the Yucca Mountain dump early on; efforts to revive it since have not succeeded, but eternal vigilance is required.
Also, as Mustafa Ali, former head of EJ at US EPA, and now serving at the National Wildlife Federation, pointed out on Democracy Now! in early September 2019, the high-level radioactive waste shipments to such dumps in the Southwest, whether by road, rail, or waterway, would themselves be a large EJ burden on people of color and/or low income communities.
As the nation honors the iconic life and work of Congressman John Lewis, we express our thanks for his environmental justice votes in 2002 and 2018, in resistance to high-level radioactive waste dumps targeted at people of color communities, and the large-scale, high-risk Mobile Chernobyl shipping campaign the opening of any one of these dumps would launch.
Posted July 30, 2020 --
Of course, Holtec is the greatest threat to the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin of s.e. NM and w. TX. Just ask Fasken Oil and Gas, Ltd., and the Permian Basin Royalty and Landowners Association, Beyond Nuclear's allies in the fight against Holtec's CISF scheme. Just days after Trump made his statement below, Fasken was busy in court, resisting the Holtec dump before the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. And, as shown in the July 29, 2020 entry below, the day before Trump's statement, NM Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham wrote the president, urging opposition to not only Holtec's CISF, but also ISP's targeted at the NM border at Eunice:
Trump, in West Texas, warns Biden is threat to oil and gas industry
As reported by the Washington Post.
Of course, Trump's former Energy Secretary, Rick Perry, was and is a top cheerleader for highly radioactive waste consolidated interim storage facilities (CISFs) in the Permian Basin. In fact, Perry even welcomes "interim" becoming de facto permanent.
As Fasken Oil and Ranch, Ltd., and Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners, have argued in their opposition to both TX and NM CISFs, a radiological catastrophe could permanently shut down the busiest oil and gas fields in North America.
Posted July 29, 2020 --
NM Gov. to Trump: Stop CISFs in Permian Basin!
NM Gov. Michelle Lujan GrishamOn 7/28, NM Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (photo, left) wrote the president a strongly worded letter, opposing environmentally unjust high-level radioactive waste consolidated interim storage facilities targeted at her state by Holtec, and on its border by Interim Storage Partners (ISP) at Waste Control Specialists in TX. NRC's deadlines for public comments on its Holtec and ISP Draft Environmental Impact Statements are Sept. 22 and Nov. 3, respectively. See sample comments you can use to write your own, as well as submission instructions to send them to NRC, for Holtec, NM, and ISP, TX; please contact both your U.S. Senators, and your U.S. Rep., urging them to demand NRC extend the deadlines, and hold in-person public comment meetings in your state/district, once safe to do so, post-pandemic. (Holtec licensing hearings, with a public listen-in line, will be held on 8/5.)
admin - Santa Fe New Mexican - Objecting to nuclear storage plan, Lujan Grisham writes to Trump - By Scott Wyland
admin Transcript of July 9th NRC Holtec CISF DEIS public comment teleconference meeting
| Document Title: | Transcript of Holtec Hi-store Consolidated Interim Storage Facility Draft EIS Public Meeting, Teleconference, July 9, 2020, Pages 1-173 [Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear's verbal comments are transcribed from page 113 to page 119 -- that is page 114 to page 120 on the PDF counter.] |
| Document Type: | Meeting Transcript |
| Document Date: | 07/15/2020 |
U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (TX-35th) wrote NRC, urges public comment meetings across the Lone Star State be delayed until after the pandemic emergency -- currently raging in Texas -- ends, and the public comment period be held open until after the in-person meetings are completed, including in his congressional district.
Similarly, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-8th) has written NRC, urges the comment period be extended "throughout the duration of the pandemic," and to end it "no sooner than six months after this FEMA-declared emergency has passed."
Since March 20th, the united New Mexico U.S. congressional delegation has stood strong in its demand that NRC hold five in-person public comment meetings across the Land of Enchantment -- which inevitably will mean an extension to the current Sept. 22nd deadline in the Holtec CISF proceeding, in order to accommodate them.
Such calls are also being backed up by 24 Democratic U.S. Senators (including five who were recently campaigning for the presidency); see their April 8th letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), here.
Both congressional letters in early April demanded that the White House Office of Management and Budget suspend public comment and participation periods, in light of the pandemic emergency.
Instead, thus far, NRC has attempted to ram through the CISF public comment periods, exploiting or taking advantage of the pandemic emergency in order to do so.
Posted July 6, 2020 --
As Judy Treichel of the NV Nuclear Waste Task Force writes below, Holtec and NRC cannot legitimately claim "interim storage" status for the NM scheme, by assuming export to NV for permanent disposal. Thus, the Holtec scheme risks de facto permaent surface storage, a parking lot dump in NM:
Guest column: New Mexico nuclear facility is bad news
By Judy Treichel of Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, published in the Las Vegas Sun.
Posted July 6, 2020 --
Court rejects George Norcross challenge to EDA task-force probe
As reported by Jim Walsch of the Cherry Hill Courier-Post.
Cherry Hill, NJ has long been a Holtec International headquarters location.
George Norcross III is a Holtec International board of directors member.
Although not mentioned in the article linked above, Holtec International and its CEO, Krishna Singh, are also under criminal investigation in New Jersey re: the NJ Economic Development Authority (EDA).
As revealed last year by ProPublica and WNYC, Holtec International CEO Krishna Singh provided false information, under oath, and signed his signature onto a NJ EDA tax break application form, winning him and Holtec $260 million in tax incentives. Singh and Holtec then used the money to build its newest headquarters and fabrication plant, in Camden, NJ.
The false statement involved Singh's denial that Holtec had ever been barred from doing business with a state of federal government agency. In fact, Holtec had been barred from doing business with the Tennessee Valley Authority, after a bribery conviction of a TVA official at the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant. Singh was implicated in paying the official a $55,000 bribe, to secure a radioactive waste management contract at the triple-reactor facility in Alabama.
Also not mentioned in the article linked above is the fact that a third Norcross brother serves as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. Rep. Norcross (D-NJ) has voted in favor of legislation favorable to Holtec International, namely the legalization of the U.S. Department of Energy taking title (ownership) and liability for irradiated nuclear fuel at a private interim storage site, even in the absence of a licensed and operating deep geologic repository. Holtec International has applied for a license to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility in New Mexico, and hopes DOE (that is, American taxpayers) will pay all the bills (including a handsome profit margin to Holtec). Never mind that the law of the land has long been that, while DOE (taxpayers) is responsible for permanent disposal, the nuclear utilities are responsible for interim storage.
Posted June 25, 2020 --
Report: Company Decommissioning Pilgrim Nuclear Plant Under Criminal Investigation
Holtec International, owner of the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant, and conducting its decommissioning and high-level radioactive waste management, has also proposed a highly controversial consolidated interim storage facility for commercial irradiated nuclear fuel in New Mexico.
Posted June 24, 2020 --
[Holtec] Nuclear waste site [in NM] debated during federal hearing
As reported by the Carlsbad Current Argus:
Nuclear waste site debated during federal hearing
State of New Mexico says nuclear waste project poses disproportionate risk
Judge Orders Decommissioning Temporarily Halted at Former Nuclear Plant
Lacey Officials, Oyster Creek Generating Station Owners Disagree on Land Use Oversight
DON'T WASTE MI, et al. FILES FEDERAL LAWSUIT CHALLENGING NATIONAL HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP TARGETING NEW MEXICO
[As a courtesy to our allies in the fight against the Holtec consolidated interim storage facility, we share this News from Don't Waste Michigan, et al., with you. ---Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist, Beyond Nuclear, <kevin@beyondnuclear.org>, (240) 462-3216]
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DON'T WASTE MI, et al. FILES FEDERAL LAWSUIT CHALLENGING NATIONAL HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP TARGETING NEW MEXICO |
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Petitioners charge Nuclear Regulatory Commission inadequately disclosed irradiated nuclear fuel transport routes through 45 states |
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WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 24, 2020 -- On June 22, 2020, the national grassroots environmental coalition Don't Waste Michigan (DWM), et al. filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Case No. 20-1225), requesting review of an April 23, 2020 Order by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). NRC's Order rejected DWM, et al.'s challenges to Holtec International/Eddy Lea Energy Alliance’s application to build a massive “consolidated interim storage facility” (CISF) for nuclear waste in southeastern New Mexico. Holtec proposes to store as much as 173,000 metric tons of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel – more than twice the amount currently stored at U.S. nuclear power reactors – in shallow pits on the site. Barbara Warren, Executive Director of Citizens’ Environmental Coalition (CEC), said: “Multiple New York activists share serious concerns with our friends in New Mexico about the deficient environmental review for the long-term storage of nuclear waste that will be hazardous for millions of years. NRC has not required controls adequate to handle both short-term and long-term hazards for this dangerously radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel. In addition, there has been NO evaluation of the entire hazardous journey high-level nuclear waste will require, the enormous costs to fix transport infrastructure and the potential for disaster along the entire route, where freight and passenger trains must share rail lines. In addition, barge transport poses unique hazards." “The proposal to make New Mexico a national sacrifice zone includes tens of thousands of rail shipments of irradiated nuclear fuel and may be one of the most dramatic long-term transport efforts in the history of the United States," observed Leona Morgan, Coordinator of the Nuclear Issues Study Group in Albuquerque. "We're joining six other organizations in a total of five states to challenge the federal government demanding that the 200 million+ people living within 50 miles of rail corridors have a say in this decision to allow deadly radioactive waste to come through their communities." Michael Keegan, Co-Chair of Don't Waste Michigan, said: "Holtec's 'Return to Sender' policy, for Mobile Chernobyl shipments that show up in New Mexico externally contaminated, leaking radioactivity, or damaged, is illegal. It would mean communities across the country would be exposed to high-level radioactive risks, coming and going. This includes for Fermi Unit 2's irradiated nuclear fuel, in Holtec containers, that would pass by rail through the heart of metro Detroit, during both legs of the nonsensical, high-risk, 3,000-mile round-trip journey." Attorney Terry Lodge, Toledo, OH-based legal counsel for Don't Waste Michigan, et al., charged that, "The Holtec proposal is a corporate welfare trough that will make the nuclear waste problem in this country worse, putting millions of people along transport routes at unnecessary risk." “My community does not want dangerous radioactive waste, despite claims made by nuclear lobbyists and politicians who see us as their dumping ground,” said Rose Gardner, a founder of Alliance for Environmental Strategies, who has been fighting low-level radioactive waste in her community for years. AFES is an ally of Don't Waste MI, et al., in opposing the Holtec CISF, as well as a related CISF that Don't Waste MI, et al., also opposes, Interim Storage Partners at Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Texas. “Two companies now want to bring in the deadliest of all radioactive waste, from around the entire country, store it in our backyard and keep it there for decades. We don’t want it and we don’t consent to being dumped on. We live here. We have children. And we’re not the sacrifice zone for wealthier communities,” Gardner added. Gardner lives in Eunice, New Mexico, 5 miles west of the proposed WCS radioactive waste storage site, and less than 40 miles southeast of the proposed Holtec/ELEA site, proposed for midway between Carlsbad and Hobbs, NM. The June 22, 2020 filing deadline at the federal court of appeals came just one day before the NRC held its first of two scheduled public comment webinars/call-ins regarding its Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Holtec's proposed CISF. The webinar/call-in took place from 5 to 10pm Eastern, Tuesday, June 23, 2020. Representatives of Don't Waste Michigan, et al. submitted verbal comments at that time. A second webinar/call-in for public comment is scheduled to begin at 5pm Eastern on Thursday, July 9, 2020. NRC's current deadline for public comment is September 22, 2020. During the preceding environmental scoping stage public comment period in 2018, more than 30,000 public comments opposing the Holtec CISF were submitted, a record-breaking number for the subject matter. |
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| Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org. |
admin MEDIA COVERAGE:
11:30am Eastern, Wed., June 24, 2020 --
2:03pm Eastern, Wed., June 24, 2020 --
Tweet by Scott Stapf of the Hastings Group:
https://twitter.com/stapf/status/1275848353583190016
Brand new, empty, highly radioactive watse Holtec container heavy haul truck shipment to Vermont Yankee flipped over on the side of the road in Andover, VT, June 19-20, 2020.
6:34pm Eastern, Wed., June 24, 2020 --
High-Level Nuclear Waste in Southeast New Mexico, with Legal Council in Lawsuit, Terry Lodge
As reported by the Richard Eeds Show on KTRC in Santa Fe, NM. Listen to the 13-minute audio recording, here.
- Albuquerque Journal - Holtec project challenged by out-of-state groups alleging dangers in transporting nuclear w - By Adrian Hedden
- Carlsbad Current Argus - Holtec project challenged by out-of-state groups alleging dangers in transporting nuclear w - Adrian Hedden
"Coalition asks federal court to review NRC decisions in Holtec proceeding," by Andrea Jennetta in Washington, S&P Global Platts Inside NRC, Volume 42/Number 14/July 6, 2020, Page 1 (continued on Page 7). This article is available by subscription only.
NRC Holtec CISF DEIS, transcript of public comments from teleconference meeting
| Document Title: | Transcript of Proceedings - Public Online Webinar for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Holtec Hi-Store Consolidated Interim Storage Facility, June 23, 2020, Pages 1-202 |
| Document Type: | Meeting Transcript |
| Document Date: | 06/23/2020 |
BEYOND NUCLEAR FILES FEDERAL LAWSUIT CHALLENGING HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP FOR ENTIRE INVENTORY OF U.S. “SPENT” REACTOR FUEL
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BEYOND NUCLEAR FILES FEDERAL LAWSUIT CHALLENGING HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP FOR ENTIRE INVENTORY OF U.S. “SPENT” REACTOR FUEL Petitioner charges the Nuclear Regulatory Commission knowingly violated U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Act and up-ended settled law prohibiting transfer of ownership of spent fuel to the federal government until a permanent underground repository is ready to receive it |
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| [WASHINGTON, DC – June 4, 2020] -- Today the non-profit organization Beyond Nuclear filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit requesting review of an April 23, 2020 order and an October 29, 2018 order by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), rejecting challenges to Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance’s application to build a massive “consolidated interim storage facility” (CISF) for nuclear waste in southeastern New Mexico. Holtec proposes to store as much as 173,000 metric tons of highly radioactive irradiated or “spent” nuclear fuel – more than twice the amount of spent fuel currently stored at U.S. nuclear power reactors – in shallowly buried containers on the site.
But according to Beyond Nuclear’s petition, the NRC’s orders “violated the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by refusing to dismiss an administrative proceeding that contemplated issuance of a license permitting federal ownership of used reactor fuel at a commercial fuel storage facility.” Since it contemplates that the federal government would become the owner of the spent fuel during transportation to and storage at its CISF, Holtec’s license application should have been dismissed at the outset, Beyond Nuclear’s appeal argues. Holtec has made no secret of the fact that it expects the federal government will take title to the waste, which would clear the way for it to be stored at its CISF, and this is indeed the point of building the facility. But that would directly violate the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA), which prohibits federal government ownership of spent fuel unless and until a permanent underground repository is up and running. No such repository has been licensed in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) most recent estimate for the opening of a geologic repository is the year 2048 at the earliest. In its April 23 decision, in which the NRC rejected challenges to the license application, the four NRC Commissioners admitted that the NWPA would indeed be violated if title to spent fuel were transferred to the federal government so it could be stored at the Holtec facility. But they refused to remove the license provision in the application which contemplates federal ownership of the spent fuel. Instead, they ruled that approving Holtec’s application in itself would not involve NRC in a violation of federal law, and that therefore they could go forward with approving the application, despite its illegal provision. According to the NRC’s decision, “the license itself would not violate the NWPA by transferring the title to the fuel, nor would it authorize Holtec or [the U.S. Department of Energy] to enter into storage contracts.” (page 7). The NRC Commissioners also noted with approval that “Holtec hopes that Congress will amend the law in the future.” (page 7). “This NRC decision flagrantly violates the federal Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which prohibits an agency from acting contrary to the law as issued by Congress and signed by the President,” said Mindy Goldstein, an attorney for Beyond Nuclear. “The Commission lacks a legal or logical basis for its rationale that it may issue a license with an illegal provision, in the hopes that Holtec or the Department of Energy won’t complete the illegal activity it authorized. The buck must stop with the NRC.” “Our claim is simple,” said attorney Diane Curran, another member of Beyond Nuclear’s legal team. “The NRC is not above the law, nor does it stand apart from it.” According to a 1996 D.C. Circuit Court ruling, the NWPA is Congress’ “comprehensive scheme for the interim storage and permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste generated by civilian nuclear power plants” [Ind. Mich. Power Co. v. DOE, 88 F.3d 1272, 1273 (D.C. Cir. 1996)]. The law establishes distinct roles for the federal government vs. the owners of facilities that generate spent fuel with respect to the storage and disposal of spent fuel. The “Federal Government has the responsibility to provide for the permanent disposal of … spent nuclear fuel” but “the generators and owners of … spent nuclear fuel have the primary responsibility to provide for, and the responsibility to pay the costs of, the interim storage of … spent fuel until such … spent fuel is accepted by the Secretary of Energy” [42 U.S.C. § 10131]. Section 111 of the NWPA specifically provides that the federal government will not take title to spent fuel until it has opened a repository [42 U.S.C. § 10131(a)(5)]. “When Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and refused to allow nuclear reactor licensees to transfer ownership of their irradiated reactor fuel to the DOE until a permanent repository was up and running, it acted wisely,” said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist for Beyond Nuclear. “It understood that spent fuel remains hazardous for millions of years, and that the only safe long-term strategy for safeguarding irradiated reactor fuel is to place it in a permanent repository for deep geologic isolation from the living environment. Today, the NWPA remains the public’s best protection against a so-called ‘interim’ storage facility becoming a de facto permanent, national, surface dump for radioactive waste. But if we ignore it or jettison the law, communities like southeastern New Mexico can be railroaded by the nuclear industry and its friends in government, and forced to accept mountains of forever deadly high-level radioactive waste other states are eager to offload.” In addition to impacting New Mexico, shipping the waste to the CISF site would also endanger 43 other states plus the District of Columbia, because it would entail hauling 10,000 high risk, high-level radioactive waste shipments on their roads, rails, and waterways, posing risks of radioactive release all along the way. Besides threatening public health and safety, evading federal law to license CISF facilities would also impact the public financially. Transferring title and liability for spent fuel from the nuclear utilities that generated it to DOE would mean that federal taxpayers would have to pay for its so-called "interim" storage, to the tune of many billions of dollars. That’s on top of the many billions ratepayers and taxpayers have already paid to fund a permanent geologic repository that hasn’t yet materialized. But that’s not to say that Yucca Mountain would be an acceptable alternative to CISF. “A deep geologic repository for permanent disposal should meet a long list of stringent criteria: legality, environmental justice, consent-based siting, scientific suitability, mitigation of transport risks, regional equity, intergenerational equity, and safeguards against nuclear weapons proliferation, including a ban on spent fuel reprocessing,” Kamps said. “But the Yucca Mountain dump, which is targeted at land owned by the Western Shoshone in Nevada, fails to meet any of those standards. That’s why a coalition of more than a thousand environmental, environmental justice, and public interest organizations, representing all 50 states, has opposed it for 33 years." Kamps noted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the NWPA before, including in the matter of inadequate standards for Yucca Mountain. In its landmark 2004 decision in Nuclear Energy Institute v. Environmental Protection Agency, it wrote, “Having the capacity to outlast human civilization as we know it and the potential to devastate public health and the environment, nuclear waste has vexed scientists, Congress, and regulatory agencies for the last half-century." The Court found the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s insufficient 10,000-year standard for Yucca Mountain violated the NWPA’s requirement that the National Academy of Sciences' recommendations must be followed, and ordered the EPA back to the drawing board. In 2008, the EPA issued a revised standard, acknowledging a million-year hazard associated with irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Even that standard falls short, Kamps said, because certain radioactive isotopes in spent fuel remain dangerous for much longer than that. Iodine-129, for example, is hazardous for 157 million years. NOTE TO EDITORS AND PRODUCERS: Sources quoted in this release are available for comment. For a copy of the petition filed today, to arrange interviews or for other information, please contact Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988 -30- |
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| Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org. |
admin Press coverage:
Fight Over New Mexico Nuke Waste Plan Lands in DC Circuit
Courthouse News Service, June 4, 2020, Beyond Nuclear referenced.
‘Forever deadly’: State officials, communities scramble to fight a proposal to house high-level nuclear waste in New Mexico
New Mexico Political Report, June 4, 2020, Kevin Kamps quoted.
Lawsuit: NRC 'flagrantly' broke law with N.M. site review
Energy Wire (E&E), June 5, 2020, Beyond Nuclear mentioned. (Article is behind paywall)
Holtec’s interim nuclear waste application challenged in court
Albuquerque Journal, June 5, 2020.
DC Circ. Told NRC Shouldn't Review Illegal Nuke Storage Plan
Law360, June 5, 2020 (article is behind a paywall).
Watchdog petitions D.C. Circuit for a voice in nuclear waste battle
Reuters Legal, June 5, 2020 (article is behind a paywall).
Beyond Nuclear Asks Court to Review NRC Decisions on Spent Fuel Storage Facility
S&P Global Platts Inside NRC, June 8, 2020 (article behind paywall).
Another Court Challenge for Nuclear Waste Storage Site
As reported by PowerMagazine, June 9, 2020.
Legal battle continues against proposed nuclear waste site near Carlsbad
- Carlsbad Current Argus - Legal battle continues against proposed nuclear waste site near Carlsbad - Adrian Hedden, Carlsbad Current-Argus, June 10, 2020
Activists say Holtec filing violates nuclear waste law
Watchdog files appeal over storage complex
As reported by the Associated Press (republished by Antelope Valley Press), June 14, 2020
Beyond Nuclear v. NRC, opposing Holtec CISF, appeal filed at U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Links to documents filed on June 4, 2020 by Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel, Diane Curran and Mindy Goldstein:
Cerro Grande Fire remains burned into New Mexico's memory 20 years later
Updated - Sunday, May 10, 2020
- Santa Fe New Mexican - Cerro Grande Fire remains burned into New Mexico's memory 20 years later - By Scott Wyland
NRC rejects calls from 50 group environmental coalition's requests re: Holtec CISF DEIS public comment proceeding
See the coalition's requests, made on March 25th, here.
But on May 1st, NRC essentially told us to go jump in a lake. Our 50 group NGO letter of March 25 to NRC, above, combined with the united NM US congressional delegation letter of March 20, did force NRC to give us 60 more days for public comment.
So that's a 120-day public comment period altogether. Instead of a May 22nd deadline, we now face a July 22nd deadline.
But NRC rejected most of our requests. We had called for 199 days for public comment. We had called for two-dozen public comment meetings in a dozen states, including outside of NM on transport routes. We had called for the countdown clock to not even start till after the pandemic. We had called for in-person public meetings after the pandemic, so they'd be safe.
See NRC's email to coalition legal counsel Terry Lodge, below, as well as a link to the NRC's letter.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: NMSS_DSFM_Admin Resource <NMSS_DSFM_Admin.Resource@nrc.gov>
Date: Mon, May 4, 2020 at 11:28 AM
Subject: SUBJECT: Letter to T. Lodge from A. Kock, USNRC re: Docket ID NRC-2018-0052, Holtec International HI–STORE CISF (Request for DEIS public omment [sic, comment] period extension and additional public meetings)
SUBJECT: Letter to T. Lodge from A. Kock, NRC re: Docket ID NRC-2018-0052, Holtec International HI–STORE CISF (Request for DEIS public comment period extension and additional public meetings)
Dear Mr. Lodge, et. al.,
Attached [linked here] for your information is the US NRC’s response to your letter dated March 25, 2020.
Regards,
Staff of the US NRC
Posted April 30, 2020 --
Further evidence, in addition to that posted above, that NRC and Holtec are in cahoots on this environmentally unjust scheme:
Nuclear Hotseat #462: New Mexico Nuclear Garbage Dump Approved by NRC Behind Covid Smokescreen
Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist, Kevin Kamps, was hosted by Libbe HaLevy for an extended interview on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's sudden, astonishing rejection of appeals opposing the Holtec International/Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance consolidated interim storage facility. Holtec is targeting largely Hispanic communities in southeastern New Mexico with the largest proposed high-level radioactive waste dump on Earth.
Kevin's interview begins at the 9 minute 13 second mark, and ends at the 39 minute 59 second mark. But the rest of the show rocks as well, including another featured interview with Bruce Gagnon of Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
Listen to the audio recording, and find additional links for more information, here.
[And see Beyond Nuclear's press release about the NRC ruling, including our vow to fight on by appealing to the federal courts, here.]
Posted April 27, 2020 --
The Holtec Partnership, Probed
Statement from Lea County, NM resident, and We the Fourth spokesman, Nick Maxwell:
Greetings from Lea County,
Blessings continue daily. I have new information regarding the investigation into the Holtec-ELEA partnership in New Mexico. On Friday, the State Auditor officially confirmed an open investigation of my procurement complaint filed on July 17, 2019.
Below, please find my recently published commentary of the government misconduct being investigated.
I’d encourage you to share this information in any way to build public awareness. On social media, please share from my public Facebook post (linked below) or share the link to my commentary website (https://wethefourth.org) in your new post to generate a thumbnail preview.
(https://www.facebook.com/nick.maxwell.56/posts/10156883662191791)
To date, mainstream media has not reported on this matter.
#JusticeForNewMexicans
Nick Maxwell,
resident of Lea County
The Holtec Partnership, Probed
What the Hobbs News-Sun and Associated Press aren't reporting:
April 27, 2020
(LEA COUNTY, NM) -- This past Friday, State Auditor Brian Colón confirmed the open investigation of a procurement complaint filed last year against the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, a regional government in a partnership with Holtec International to site a large nuclear waste storage facility in Lea County.
Last July, Lea County resident Nick Maxwell brought the complaint to the state auditor's office and publicly issued his accompanying statement to the press. His complaint alleged that public officers of Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) had colluded with executives of Holtec in a joint-effort to defraud a competitive public procurement. Notably absent from the mainstream media outlets has been any report about the state's receipt of Maxwell's complaint for prohibited bidding.
Equipped with New Mexico's inspection statutes, Maxwell had obtained the invoice of the attorney who had been commissioned by ELEA to draft a revenue sharing deal in the later months of 2015. According to the invoice, this deal was secretly slipped exclusively to Holtec in anticipation of ELEA's announcement of a competitive public procurement offering the purchase of the group's publicly owned surface rights for the purpose of siting a nuclear storage facility. Not long thereafter and near the beginning of 2016, the deal was kicked back to ELEA within Holtec's sealed proposal at the end of public procurement.
The attorney had been tasked with preparing the terms which outlined this procurement. Per those terms, proposals from the public would have to include a revenue sharing deal for consideration.
Maxwell has alleged ELEA's tax-funded kickback deal was a bribe: a fabricated promise returned by Holtec for allocating no less than 30% of their future revenues to ELEA should Holtec receive a facility license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and get everything operational. In effect, future costs associated with Holtec's storage facility may become artificially inflated to afford the "30% bribery cuts" that will get regularly paid out to ELEA for their enduring "local public support".
Even in the state of New Mexico, white collar crimes such as bribery can be charged as racketeering scams when organizations attempt to pass off their crime as legitimate business activities. If held liable for commissioning their henchman-in-fact attorney to broker a bribe, the energy alliance could face asset forfeiture of Holtec's promised land to the State of New Mexico as well as involuntary judicial dissolution of the local government-owned limited liability company.
John Heaton, longtime chief officer of ELEA and former state representative in the Democratic Party, has kept his high seat on the board of directors of the energy alliance despite the investigation.
Maxwell commented on the auditor's investigation, "The people of New Mexico demand and deserve transparency, honesty, and integrity from their public officials. This organized effort from ELEA and their partner to broker a favorable bribe had resulted in a less-than-competitive public procurement and should be exposed as a criminal racket funded from the public treasury. Any billion-dollar bid rigging conspiracy like this must be brought to justice for New Mexicans before it is too late."
author: Nick Maxwell
###
Posted April 27, 2020 --
Further evidence, in addition to that cited above, that NRC and Holtec are in cahoots to advance this environmentally racist CISF scheme:
Beyond Nuclear press release: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announces it will proceed with licensing of proposed high-level radioactive waste dump in New Mexico despite illegal license term
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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announces it will proceed with licensing of proposed high-level radioactive waste dump in New Mexico despite illegal license term |
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In violation of Nuclear Waste Policy Act, license applicant Holtec International contemplates federal ownership of 173,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent reactor fuel to be stored at New Mexico site Beyond Nuclear vows to challenge NRC and Holtec in federal court |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. and SOUTHEASTERN NM -- In an astounding ruling on April 23, 2020, the four-member U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) acknowledged that an application by Holtec International/Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance to store a massive quantity of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico violates federal law – and yet ruled that the unlawful provisions of the license application could be ignored and would not bar approval. Beyond Nuclear has challenged the NRC’s authority to approve Holtec's license application because it contemplates that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) may become the owner of the irradiated reactor fuel. The federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) prohibits federal ownership of spent fuel, however, unless and until a federal repository for permanent disposal is operating. The NRC Commissioners acknowledged that Federal law prohibits federally-sponsored storage of irradiated reactor fuel unless and until a repository for permanent disposal is in operation. Nevertheless the NRC threw out Beyond Nuclear’s legal challenge to the project on the ground that Holtec could be depended on not to implement the unlawful provision if the license were granted. The Commissioners’ decision affirms an earlier ruling by the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that the storage facility may be licensed despite the illegal license terms contemplating federal ownership of the irradiated fuel. The Licensing Board accepted arguments by Holtec and the NRC’s technical staff that the license containing illegal provisions could be approved as long as it also contained a provision that would allow private ownership of the spent fuel. Mindy Goldstein, a lawyer for Beyond Nuclear, stated, “the NRC’s decision flagrantly violates the federal Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which prohibits an agency from acting contrary to the law as issued by Congress and signed by the President.” Goldstein also stated that “the Commission lacks a legal or logical basis for its rationale that the illegal provisions could be ignored in favor of other provisions that are legal, or that an illegal license could be issued in ‘hopes’ that the law might change in the future. The APA gives the NRC no excuse to ignore the mandates of federal law.” Diane Curran, also a lawyer for Beyond Nuclear, said the group will pursue a federal court appeal of the NRC decision. “Our claim is simple,” she declared. “The NRC is not above the law.” Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist for Beyond Nuclear, called the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act “the public’s best protection against an interim storage facility becoming a de facto permanent, national radioactive waste dump at the surface of the Earth.” According to Kamps, “Congress knew, in passing the NWPA, that the only safe long-term strategy for care of irradiated reactor fuel is to place it in a permanent repository for deep geologic isolation. Congress acted wisely in refusing to allow nuclear reactor licensees to transfer ownership of their irradiated reactor fuel to the DOE until a repository was up and running. The carefully crafted Nuclear Waste Policy Act thus protects a state like New Mexico from being railroaded by the powerful nuclear industry, its friends in the federal government, and other states looking to off-load their mountain of forever deadly high-level radioactive waste." Kamps added: "A deep geologic repository for permanent disposal should meet a long list of stringent criteria. These include legality, environmental justice, consent-based siting, scientific suitability, mitigation of transport risks, regional equity, intergenerational equity, and non-proliferation, including a ban on reprocessing. This is why a coalition of more than a thousand environmental, environmental justice, and public interest organizations, representing all 50 states, have opposed the Yucca Mountain dump targeted at Western Shoshone Indian land in Nevada for 33 years." “On behalf of our members and supporters in New Mexico, and across the country along the road, rail, and waterway routes in most states, that would be used to haul the high risk, high-level radioactive waste out West, we will appeal the NRC Commissioners' bad ruling to the federal court,” Kamps added. -30- |
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| Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org. |
admin Federal government rejects contentions to nuclear waste site near Carlsbad and Hobbs
as reported by the Carlsbad Current Argus
Posted April 20, 2020 --
Further evidence, in addition to that posted above, that NRC and Holtec are in cahoots on this environmentally unjust CISF scheme:
PANDEMIC -- Zoom bombings, cancellations: Energy hearings in chaos
"Freedom of Speech," by Norman Rockwell, 1943As reported by E&E News. The article quotes Beyond Nuclear:
...[C]itizen groups, environmental advocates and some legislators are voicing concerns about their ability to be heard on projects including wind farms, pipelines and nuclear waste.
Proposals for two interim used-fuel storage facilities are pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which could approve the license applications as soon as next year.
Opponents have balked at the plans and said they pose safety risks. And a number of parties are asking for more time to vet a proposal in New Mexico — including through public meetings.
New Mexico's congressional delegation is calling for extending a 60-day public comment period on a draft environmental impact statement until it's safe to attend public meetings, noting that any decision on nuclear waste storage may have long-lasting consequences.
Beyond Nuclear, a frequent industry critic, is part of a coalition seeking a 199-day comment period and meetings in a number of states that could occur once it's safe to gather at public events. [See coalition press release, here.]
Kevin Kamps, a radioactive waste specialist with Beyond Nuclear, called in-person public meetings an "important American tradition."
"You know," he said, the "Norman Rockwell town hall meeting where people can look at each other in the eye and can say what they have to say. And it's called democracy."
For its part, Holtec International, the company proposing the New Mexico site, doesn't object to having the NRC consider more time for comments.
"Stakeholder participation is an important part of the regulatory approval process and Holtec welcomes continued feedback," spokesman Joe Delmar said in an email. "An extension is the NRC's prerogative and considering the current environment it seems appropriate for the NRC to give ample opportunity for public comment."
Nancy Vann, a watchdog on the Indian Point nuclear power plant, has published "rap sheets" on Holtec International and SNC-Lavalin, as well: 2/16/20 Holtec & SNC-Lavalin Profiles and "Rap Sheet"
Posted January 15, 2020 --
Is The Company Poised To Dismantle Indian Point Too Radioactive?
Holtec has applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a license to construct and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for 173,600 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico. This would involve thousands of road, rail, and/or waterway shipments of high risk, high-level radioactive waste, through most states, over the course of decades.
Posted November 23, 2019 --
Nuke Farm, New Mexico (Part One), by Nick Maxwell at We the Fourth
Posted November 20, 2019 --
‘Not much benefit to the state’: Legislators scrutinize details of Holtec’s proposed nuclear storage facility
As reported by the New Mexico Political Report.
Posted November 18, 2019 --
Cops drag out activist as [Holtec International board of directors member] George Norcross testifies at N.J. Senate hearing on tax incentives
As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
New Mexico lawmakers press Holtec on waste safety
New Mexico lawmakers press Holtec on waste safety
As reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The article reports:
Pending federal approval, Holtec would store some 10,000 200-ton canisters underground on a 1,000-acre desert facility “35 miles from the nearest human habitat,” according to the company’s website. The drums of waste would come to New Mexico by train. (emphasis added)
That's an odd thing for Holtec to say. Beyond Nuclear's members and supporters, who have provided legal standing for our intervention in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing proceeding, live and work within just a few, to several, miles of the targeted site for Holtec International's "consolidated interim storage facility." (CISF) One lives just a mile from the proposed CISF.
In addition to that, countless millions of Americans, in most states, live along the road, rail, and/or waterway transport routes that would be used to ship highly radioactive wastes to southeastern New Mexico. On Sept. 5, 2019, the former head of Environmental Justice (EJ) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mustafa Ali, warned on Democracy Now! that such high-level radioactive waste trucks, trains, and/or barges, would themselves be EJ violations, as they pass through low income, people of color communities.
Such shipments would go on for not years, but decades.
It seems that for Holtec, certain people just don't count, when there are many billions of dollars to be made -- albeit, yet again, at public expense! (Not to mention risk, and liability!)
It's not just NM state legislators opposed to Holtec's CISF. In June 2019, NM's governor, public lands commissioner, and U.S. Rep., Deb Haaland (a Democrat, one of the first two Native American women ever elected to Congress, in 2018), all spoke out strongly against Holtec. In addition, the All Pueblo Council of Governors did so as well, against Holtec as well as Interim Storage Partners CISF at Waste Control Specialists in Texas, on October 21, 2019.
Posted October 24, 2019 --
The most radioactive state
Who will be the ultimate bearer of the nation’s nuclear waste?
In Mashable’s series Wasted, they dig into the myriad ways we’re trashing our planet. Because it’s time to sober up.
It reports:
Though New Mexico will resist, and may prevail. “Folks in New Mexico are not going to take it,” said Albuquerque resident Don Hancock, who is the director of the Nuclear Waste Safety program at the Southwest Research and Information Center, an advocacy group focused on environmental and social justice. “We’ll stop this.”
SRIC is an Alliance for Nuclear Accountability member group, as is Beyond Nuclear.
Posted October 21, 2019 --
All Pueblo Council of Governors Opposes Largest Nuclear Waste Transport Campaign in Nation’s History
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 21st, 2019
Contact: Alicia Ortega, APCG@indianpueblo.org
Permalink: https://www.apcg.org/uncategorized/all-pueblo-council-of-governors-opposes-largest-nuclear-waste-transport-and-storage-campaign-in-nations-history/
All Pueblo Council of Governors Opposes Largest Nuclear Waste Transport Campaign in Nation’s History
Pueblo leaders voice opposition to license applications to transport and store high level radioactive nuclear waste in New Mexico and Texas
Santa Fe, NM – The All Pueblo Council of Governors, representing the collective voice of the member 20 sovereign Pueblo nations of New Mexico and Texas, convened Thursday affirming commitment to protect Pueblo natural and cultural resources from risks associated with transport of the nation’s growing inventory of high level nuclear waste from sites across the country to proposed semi-permanent sites in southeastern New Mexico and mid western Texas. The Council adopted a resolution expressing opposition to the license applications by private companies, Holtec International and Interim Storage Partners LLC, authorizing transport nuclear material, construction, and operation of a proposed multi-billion dollar consolidated interim storage facilities in Lea County, NM and Andrews County, TX.
Much more
https://www.apcg.org/uncategorized/all-pueblo-council-of-governors-opposes-largest-nuclear-waste-transport-and-storage-campaign-in-nations-history/
October 24, 2019 Update:
Oil and Gas 360 has reported on this news:
https://www.oilandgas360.com/native-american-pueblo-leaders-oppose-nuclear-facility-near-carlsbad-hobbs-2/
Native American Pueblo leaders oppose nuclear facility near Carlsbad, Hobbs - Oil & Gas 360 - oilandgas360.com
- ESRA Consulting Corporation - After September 11th: Risk Assessment of Native American Pueblos and Tribes of New Mexico on the Impacts of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and its Transuranic Nuclear Waste Transportation Routes - Presentation to the Transportation Research Board of The National Academy of Sciences, TRB 86th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.,23 January 2007 - Sandy H. Straus (pdf-2.90M)
Posted September 28, 2019 --
MA AG Healey sues federal nuclear regulators over Plymouth plant transfer
As reported by the Boston Globe.
Holtec International has also proposed "temporarily storing" a grand total of 173,600 metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at a site mid-way between Hobbs and Carlsbad, New Mexico.
The license tranfer from Entergy to Holtec at Pilgrim atomic reactor in Massachusetts, would include ownership, title, and liability for the irradiated nuclear fuel stored on-site.
Holtec's grand scheme is to ultimately transport Pilgrim's highly radioactive waste to its "consolidated interim storage facility" in NM.
Posted September 27, 2019 --
Oyster Creek Stakeholder Forum Leaves Locals with Even More Renewed Fears
Posted July 16, 2019 --
Pilgrim Watch Motion to File a New Contention, re: Holtec trustworthiness, reliability, and character (vis-a-vis allegation of bribery attempts, and more)
See the July 16, 2019 Motion filed by environmental watch-dog organization Pilgrim Watch, in the context of Holtec International/SNC-Lavalin's takeover of the permanently shutdown Pilgrim atomic reactor license for decommissioning and irradiated nuclear fuel management purposes.
Posted July 10, 2019 --
[NJ State Senate Majority Leader] Weinberg ‘troubled’ by Holtec revelations
Posted July 9, 2019 --
Posted July 9, 2019 --
Holtec CEO was at center of inquiry that led to disbarment by federal agency
Posted July 2, 2019 --
Meet the Congressman Defending Questionable Tax Breaks for a Company Connected to His Rich Brother
After multiple issues have surfaced with Holtec International’s New Jersey tax break application, Rep. Donald Norcross, its biggest congressional supporter (and the brother of a Holtec board member) is playing defense.
As reported by ProPublica and WNYC.
Posted June 30, 2019 --
Jim Walden went after the mob as a federal prosecutor. Now he’s investigating N.J. tax breaks
As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
June 26, 2019 --
A Huge Tax Break Went to a Politically Connected Company in New Jersey Despite Red Flags
Holtec International told New Jersey regulators that Ohio was competing for its new headquarters. But officials there stripped the firm of past tax awards for failing to create the jobs it promised.
As reported by ProPublica and WNYC.
Posted June 20, 2019 --
New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard: Holtec Int’l Misrepresentations Raise Serious Safety Concerns for Proposed Nuclear Storage Facility
NM Commissioner of Public Lands' press release, sub-titled "No Restrictions on Oil, Gas and Mining Activities At Proposed Site," as well as news coverage, posted.
Posted June 4, 2019:
The Tax Break Application Had a False Answer. Now the State Has Put the Break on Hold.
After WNYC and ProPublica identified a false answer on nuclear company Holtec International’s New Jersey tax break application, state officials have frozen the break pending further investigation.
Posted June 3, 2019 --
Sources: Subpoena issued to New Jersey Economic Development Authority seeks documents on Holtec
The news follows an earlier exposé by Politico and WNYC, dated May 23, 2019, re: Holtec's false testimony to the State of New Jersey on an application which won the company a $260 million tax break. Holtec testified that it had never been barred from doing business with the federal government or any state government. This was false. It had been barred from doing business with the Tennessee Valley Authority, due to a bribery conviction at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Alabama.
Posted May 23, 2019 --
Re: Holtec -- "A False Answer, a Big Political Connection and $260 Million in Tax Breaks"
As reported by ProPublica and WNYC.
Posted December 20, 2018 --
"The NRC staff determined that NRC regulations do not specifically address bribery."
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has delivered an early Xmas present to Holtec International. NRC has decided that "NRC regulations do not specifically address bribery." The shocking statement is included in a December 20, 2018 "Closure Letter," re: an "Allegation" of bribery against Holtec, that NRC launched an official investigation of, lasting nearly five months. In the end, NRC's curt "Closure Letter" announced that bribery is "not our department"!
On July 30, 2018, in its public comments re: NRC's National Environmental Policy Act scoping process vis-a-vis Holtec's proposal to "tempoarily store" all the highly radioactive waste to ever be generated in the United States (and then some) in southeastern New Mexico, Beyond Nuclear included allegations of bribery by Holtec. See page 2 of Beyond Nuclear's comments, here, re: the bribery allegations against Holtec CEO Krishna Singh.
Specifically, Holtec's CEO, Krishna Singh, attempted to bribe industry whistle-blower Oscar Shirani of Commonwealth Edison/Exelon (as well as NRC whistle-blower Dr. Ross Landsman), into silence, re: widespread, serious, safety significant, quality assurance (QA) violations in the design and fabrication of Holtec containers for high-level radioactive waste storage and transport, used extensively throughout the U.S. nuclear power industry.
Singh was also implicated in bribing a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) official in order to secure a contract at the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama. The bribery led to a court conviction, and resulted in Holtec paying millions of dollars in fines, as well as a 60-day suspension (a bar) on doing business with TVA.
Of course, $2 million in fines, and a 60-day bar, were mere slaps on the wrist for a giant international corporation like Holtec. Holtec was then simply allowed to proceed merrily along its way, executing and profiting from the contract it secured through bribery, and others that followed thereafter.
Posted September 14, 2018 --
Posted September 14, 2018 --
Posted September 14, 2018 --
Protesters demand apology from Holtec CEO for calling Camden workers lazy
As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Posted September 14, 2018 --
Protesters call Holtec CEO’s comments on Camden workers ‘racist’
As reported by WHYY, Philly's NPR station.
Posted September 13, 2018 --
Posted July 29, 2018 --
Holtec Nuclear Waste Cans-Kris Singh: Apparent Bribery-Kickback And Allegation Of Attempted Bribery
As published by Mining Awareness.
Posted April 5, 2017 --
Summary of Oscar Shirani’s Allegations of Quality Assurance Violations Against Holtec Storage/Transport Casks
Now that Holtec International and the Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance (ELEA) want to open a parking lot dump in Southeastern New Mexico, it's time to look back at these whistleblower revelations from more than a decade ago:
- Summary of Oscar Shirani’s Allegations of Quality Assurance Violations Against Holtec Storage/Transport Casks. July 22, 2004.
- Dr. Ross Landsman, NRC dry cask inspector for the Midwest regional office headquartered in Chicago, wrote this memo to his superiors expressing his full support for whistleblower Oscar Shirani’s quality assurance allegations against the Holtec storage/transport casks (handwritten notes by Oscar Shirani, mentioning the devious manner in which Exelon Nuclear orchestrated his firing and defending itself against his wrongful termination lawsuit.
Shirani questioned the structural integrity of the Holtec containers sitting still, going zero miles per hour, let alone traveling 60 miles per hour -- or faster -- on railways.
Landsman has compared the QA violations involving Holtec containers, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's incompetence (or worse, collusion) -- having done nothing about it -- as similar to the reasons why Space Shuttles have hit the ground.
[See the related annotated bibliography regarding skeletons in SNC-Lavalin's closet. Holtec and SNC-Lavalin has joined into the consortium Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI). They already have U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission rubber-stamped approval to take over the Oyster Creek NJ atomic reactor site for decommissioning and high-level radioactive waste purposes. CDI is seeking to take over the Pilgrim MA reactor site, and has gotten NRC rubber-stamp approval, but the MA Attorney General has challenged this legally. CDI is also scheming to take over the three reactor Indian Point NY site, as well as the Palisades and Big Rock Point reactor sites in MI.]
admin
And SNC-Lavalin's radioactive and other skeletons in the closet (Holtec International and SNC-Lavalin have formed a consortium to undertake nuclear power plant decommissioning, as well as high-level radioactive waste management, named Comprehensive Decommissioning International, CDI):