Waste Transportation

The transportation of radioactive waste already occurs, but will become frequent on our rails, roads and waterways, should irradiated reactor fuel be moved to interim or permanent dump sites.

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Thursday
Feb112021

"THEY'RE BAAAAACK!" -- Mobile Chernobyl bill on Capitol Hill

Image compliments of NIRSThe anti-nuke movement has, by blocking proposed bad dumps, fended off Mobile Chernobyl legislation, session after session, for a quarter-century -- although sometimes by the narrowest of margins! Now, the Democratic U.S. House Environment Subcommittee is reportedly poised to push CISF-authorizing legislation (see related entry), which will likely also be pro-Yucca dump. What can you do? Please contact and urge your U.S. Representative, and both your U.S. Senators, to strongly oppose any bills -- whether authorizing or appropriations -- promoting environmentally unjust, and non-consent based siting, high-level radioactive waste dumps! You can also be patched through to your Members of Congress via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. If any one of these Southwest dumps opens, in NM, NV, and/or TX, high-risk Mobile Chernobyls would be launched through most states!

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Wednesday
Jan272021

Transport Secretary nominee Buttigieg expresses concern about high-level radioactive waste transport risks

On Jan. 21, 2021, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a confirmation hearing for President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as Transportation Secretary, former South Bend, IN mayor, and Democratic presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg.

On Jan. 27, the Committee approved Buttigieg's nomination, by a vote of 21 to 3. The nomination next moves to the full Senate floor, for a final confirmation vote.

If confirmed, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay Cabinet member in U.S. history, and also the youngest Transportation Secretary, at age 39.

During the confirmation hearing, U.S. Senator Jackie Rosen (Democrat-Nevada) questioned Mayor Buttigieg re: the risks of the Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump proposal, including shipping irradiated nuclear fuel to Nevada.

The transcript is below and video of the Senator’s exchange on Yucca Mountain can be found here.

ROSEN: Well thank you, I appreciate that. I think I have time for one more question so I want to talk about something that we discussed a little bit, which is Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste disposal. Nevadans refuse to let our state become the nation’s dumping ground for nuclear waste. For over 30 years, we have opposed the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal project, in part because it would require transporting nearly 9,500 rail casks in 2,800 trains and 2,650 trucks from across the country to Nevada.

This is a major transportation crisis waiting to happen, putting major metropolitan areas in 44 states, their freeways and their railways at risk along with millions of Americans. It would require at least 300 miles of new railroad, and take over 50 years – at three loads per week by truck or by train -- to move all this nuclear waste. It’s a huge expense, it’s a huge risk, and we have an aging rail system, and consistent shipments of these heavy casks are going to cause wear and tear. Let alone the safety [issues] and some of the bottlenecks. If you go by train, you have to go by the same four major metropolitan areas three times a week for 50 years with that nuclear waste. I just think that would be unacceptable to those poor cities and our states as well.

As Secretary of Transportation, you will have jurisdiction over the rail lines, and jurisdiction on the transportation of hazardous materials by rail via your Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and its Office of Hazardous Materials Safety.

So, with that in mind, given the safety concerns, the economic concerns, and the fact that the state of Nevada has never consented to the project, will you commit to opposing the dangerous shipments [of nuclear waste] to Yucca Mountain?

BUTTIGIEG: I’m committed to making sure that there are solutions that everybody believes in. I share the concerns that you’ve raised, not just from the Nevada perspective but all across the route.

ROSEN: I look forward to having more discussions with you on that. I appreciate your time here today and your willingness to serve our country. I thank you for your service in our military and look forward to working with you when you come out of committee.

[In fact, the South Bend, IN area would be hard-hit by many thousands of high-level radioactive waste shipments bound for Yucca Mountain, Nevada -- even though there are no atomic reactors in IN. The routes to be taken through IN, and the shipment numbers, are documented in 2017 reports prepared by the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. Citizens Action Coalition of IN has been the lead group for decades, educating officials in IN, and beyond, about the risks of high-level radioactive waste transportation.] 

Thursday
Jan212021

LAKE HURON NUKE DUMP: Property Values, Other Economic Effects

Lake Huron's shorelineLast year, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) officially cancelled its plans to build a "Deep Geologic Repository" (DGR) for 20 provincial reactors' so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes, less than a mile from Lake Huron (photo, left), at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine. This came after a two-decade struggle, culminating with the Saugeen Ojibwe Nation's veto, an 86% to 14% tribal referendum opposed. However, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), dominated by OPG, is now targeting South Bruce, Ontario, just 25 miles inland, for a national Canadian high-level rad. waste dump. Northwatch and Protect Our Waterways invited Beyond Nuclear to present on radioactive stigma impacts on property values and other economic sectors, as local resistance mounts.

Considering the long distances the irradiated nuclear fuel would travel to arrive at a DGR in South Bruce -- from east of Toronto at the Pickering and Darlington nuclear power plants in Ontario; from New Brunswick at the Point Lepreau atomic reactor; and from Quebec's Gentilly nuclear power plant -- transport risks are a significant issue, as well.

See the recording of the one and a half hour Zoom event, here.

Thursday
Oct292020

What if high-level radioactive waste had been aboard?! -- Train Hauling Chemicals Derails in Texas, Forcing Evacuations 

The derailment happened Thursday morning near Mauriceville, close to the Louisiana border

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/train-hauling-chemicals-derails-in-texas-forcing-evacuations/2469298/

Thursday
Oct012020

MOBILE CHERNOBYLS: The Environmental Justice burden

Mustafa Ali, former head of Environmental Justice (EJ) at the Obama administration's Environmental Protection Agency, has spoken on Democracy Now! about the EJ burden of high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) shipments, on communities who live near the road, rail, and waterway routes. Unsurprisingly, the dumps Mobile Chernobyls would be bound for (Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities in NM and TX, and Yucca Mountain, NV, on Western Shoshone land), are themselves environmentally unjust. Our radioactive waste specialist, Kevin Kamps, will present on this at the annual meeting of the Alliance to Halt Fermi 3 in southeast MI, on Sunday, October 4, at 2pm Eastern. A panel of local EJ activists will join him. Find the Zoom and call-in instructions here.