Public comments to NRC needed in opposition to the WCS/ISP CISF scheme, by Oct. 19 deadline!
(Please note, on Oct. 18, the public comment deadline was extended by NRC till NOVEMBER 19.)
*When submitting comments, always be sure to include Docket ID NRC-2016-0231. Include that in the subject line of the email, and at the top of the body of your text, so that the comments will be directed to the correct proceeding.*
On August 31, 2018, NRC announced another round of public comment opportunity, open until October 19, 2018. [Per above, the deadline is now NOVEMBER 19.] (The day before, NRC had also announced the resumption of the Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners licensing proceeding for a 40,000 metric ton commercial irradiated nuclear fuel centralized interim storage facility, or CISF. The proceeding had been suspended for a year, due to the CISF proponents' financial difficulties.)
As announced by NRC:
You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
· Federal Rulemaking website: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2016-0231. Address questions about NRC dockets to Jennifer Borges; telephone: 301-287-9127; email: Jennifer.Borges@nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section of this document.
· Mail comments to: May Ma, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
· Email Comments to: You may email scoping comments to the Project's email address: WCS_CISF_EIS@nrc.gov.
(However, due to serious past problems with Regulations.gov, we urge folks to submit their comments to the email address given immediately above, and hold onto your SEND copy as a receipt of your comments.)
Below are sample comments you can use to prepare your own for submission to NRC by the NOVEMBER 19 deadline. These sample comments were originally prepared by Beyond Nuclear, and other groups, in Feb. 2017, but are still entirely relevant at the present time:
Public comments are needed in opposition to Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in West Texas, which seeks to open a de facto permanent parking lot dump for up to half the commercial high-level radioactive waste in the U.S., upstream of the Ogallala Aquifer, vital drinking and irrigation water supply for numerous High Plains states, from Texas to South Dakota.
The region around WCS has a high proportion of low income, Latin American residents, and is already heavily burdened with nuclear activities (radioactive waste dumping, uranium enrichment, etc.) and dirty fossil fuel industries (widespread, heavily polluting oil extraction and natural gas fracking). WCS would launch unprecedented numbers of high-risk irradiated nuclear fuel train (and even barge) shipments through many states.
Sample comments you can use to write your own:
(Beyond Nuclear sample comments on a variety of inter-related subject matter)
*When submitting comments, always be sure to include Docket ID NRC-2016-0231. Include that in the subject line of the email, and at the top of the body of your text, so that the comments will be directed to the correct proceeding.*
Mobile Chernobyl Shipping Risks (see here for WCS's own map, from its construction and operating licence application to NRC, showing the main line railways nation-wide that would be used to transport irradiated nuclear fuel from atomic reactors to West TX; see here for another map, made by SEED Coalition, which includes some Interstate highway routing that could also be used, if NRC were to rubber-stamp a license amendment by WCS to allow Legal Weight Truck shipments);
Risks of De Facto Permanent Parking Lot Dump at WCS;
Risks of Loss of Institutional Control if De Facto Permanent Parking Lot Dumps are Abandoned, Containers Fail, and Release Catastrophic Amounts of Hazardous Radioactivity into the Environment;
Why Are These Risks Being Taken?;
Public comments previously submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a proceeding re: Private Initiatives to carry out centralized interim storage can now also be used -- "recycled," so to speak! -- to prepare comments to NRC re: WCS's scheme (the comments to DOE were due Jan. 27, 2017; however, they can be "recycled" now for submission on the WCS/ISP CISF docket).
September 19, 2018