Anti-nuclear waste tour kicks off in Houston, crossing Texas in opposition to CISFs
Inflatable mock nuke waste cask (English language signage -- the opposite side is in Spanish)As reported by the Texas Tribune, SEED Coalition, Public Citizen, and other Texas environmental allies have launched a mock nuke waste cask tour of the state, in opposition to both the Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners centralized interim storage facility (CISF) for irradiated nuclear fuel in Andrews County, West Texas, both also the Holtec International/Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance CISF targeted at Southeastern New Mexico. The two CISFs are only 40 miles apart, across the TX/NM border. If either one opened, "Mobile Chernobyl" shipping risks through TX would be significant.
The San Antonio Current has also reported on the mock nuke waste cask tour.
Below is a message from Karen Hadden of SEED Coalition, including a full scheduel for the mock nuke waste cask tour:
[Below] is our Protect Texas from Radioactive Waste Tour schedule.
The threats of nuclear reactor waste coming to our state are very real and it's a big fight. We can win if we all work together!
We appreciate any help in getting the word out and inviting your friends, neighbors and organizational members. (Some changes to the schedule could still occur - but this is our plan! Hopefully the weather cooperates, etc.) We start in Houston on Sept. 24, and then travel to San Antonio, Dallas, El Paso, Midland and Andrews, wrapping up on Oct. 1st.
The tour is sponsored by SEED Coalition, Public Citizen, Beyond Nuclear and NIRS - Nuclear Information and Resource Services. We're grateful for help from the Sierra Club in putting out the word and to all of our amazing local allies. Our special guest, Kerstin Rudek, will be able to share the successful experiences of her community's fight against radioactive waste in Gorleben Germany.
We look forward to a great time on the road - meeting people and hearing their great ideas on how we can collectively halt the threat of high-level radioactive waste in our state!
More information will be coming soon. We're updating NoNuclearWaste.org - and more will be coming soon.
Best wishes and thanks for all of your help!
Karen Hadden SEED Coalition
512-797-8481
Protect Texas from Radioactive Waste Tour
Please join us at these Texas events!
The Protect Texas from Radioactive Waste Tour will go to major cities across the state with an inflatable full-scale mock radioactive waste transport cask, holding press conferences at railroad crossings where the radioactive waste could travel and hosting community meetings.
Houston Monday 9/24/18
- · Public Meeting at 7 pm - True Love Baptist Church, 4029 Falls St.
Houston Tuesday 9/25/18
- · Press Conference at 10 am - Intersection of Hutchins and Commerce
- · City Council at 1:30 pm – 901 Bagby, City Hall, 2nd floor
San Antonio Wednesday 9/26/18
- · Press Conference at 2 pm – Alamodome Parking Lot A, near RR tracks
- · Public Meeting at 7 pm – William R. Sinkin EcoCentro, 1802 Main. Ave.
Dallas Thursday 9/27/18
- · Press Conference at 2 pm - Dallas County Commissioners Court parking lot , by 411 Elm St, behind the building (to the West, near RR tracks)
- · Public Meeting at 6:30 pm – First Unitarian Church, 4015 Normandy Ave. Room 301
El Paso Friday 9/28/18
- · Press Conference at 2 pm – E. Mills Ave., between Ochoa and Virginia Streets (Approximately 728 E. Mills Avenue – at paid parking spaces)
- · Public Meeting at 6:30 pm – Sinbad (Restaurant) 2716 N. Mesa St.
Midland Saturday 9/30/18
- · Press conference at 2 pm – parking lot of the Rutter & Wilbanks Building (301 S. Main St.) E. side of Main and south side of RR tracks.
- · Public Meeting at 6:30 pm - Casa Lopez,
Andrews Sunday 10/01/18
- · Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church – following 8:30 and 10:30 am services, 201 NE Avenue K
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See the related Public Citizen Texas Office press release, dated September 27, 2018:
Government’s Decision to Consider Dangerous West Texas Radioactive Waste Dump Is Opportunity to Block It
Public Involvement Has Stopped Poorly Designed Waste Dumps in the Past
Sept. 27, 2018
Contact: Angel Amaya, Public Citizen, aamaya@citizen.org, (361) 779-2572
Tom “Smitty” Smith, Public Citizen, smitty@citizen.org, (512) 797-8468
Karen Hadden, SEED Coalition, karendhadden@gmail.com, (512) 797-8481
AUSTIN, Texas – The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) decision to restart its review of a high-risk, high-level radioactive waste dump in West Texas creates an opportunity to halt a dangerous mistake, Public Citizen, the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and Beyond Nuclear said today.
Waste Control Specialists (WCS) is seeking to expand its existing low-level waste site to take high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants across the country. If the site is approved, 40,000 tons of spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors around the country would be transported to Texas and stored for 40 years or longer, risking the creation of an unsafe de facto permanent disposal facility. The waste likely would be shipped throughout the country on its way to the storage site.
The NRC put a hold on the application when WCS changed ownership. The clock is ticking for public input on the Texas proposal, which is important because public opposition has stopped the establishment of radioactive waste dumps in the past.
“This plan is all risk and no reward – not only for Texas but for the whole country, and it should be halted immediately. People across the country should be concerned, because putting this waste on the nation’s railways would invite disaster,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, special projects director for Public Citizen’s Texas office. “The amount of radioactive waste on a single train car would contain as much plutonium as the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Radioactive waste moving through highly populated cities across the country could be targeted for sabotage by terrorists or could cause catastrophe in the event of an accident.”
The NRC will conduct safety and environmental reviews before it decides whether to approve the radioactive waste dump application, but the agency will not hold any public hearings, despite holding five hearings on a similar proposal this spring in New Mexico and two dozen for the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. Texans are demanding public meetings; a public comment period is not enough to address these grave concerns.
A planned protest, called the Protect Texas from Radioactive Waste Tour, is visiting rail crossings across Texas where the waste may be shipped with a mock full-scale size radioactive waste transport cask. Public Citizen and the SEED Coalition are hosting town hall meetings this week in give Texas cities – Houston, Dallas, El Paso, Midland and Andrews – to help citizens prepare comments and organize.
Read the full release here.
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View this on our press page.
© 2018 Public Citizen • 1600 20th Street NW / Washington, D.C. 20009
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The Texas mock nuke waste cask tour generated a lot of media coverage. Thomas "Smitty" Smith of Public Citizen Texas Office has compiled it here.