Environmental opponents press their case, as waste licensing hearings loom in Southwest

Infrared photo of a high-level radioactive waste train shipment, which appeared in National GeographicOn Dec. 27, 2018, Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel (Diane Curran of Washington, DC, and Mindy Goldstein and Caroline Reiser of Emory University Turner Environmental Law Clinic in Atlanta, GA) filed our first federal court papers in opposition to both the Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA), New Mexico, as well as the Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners (WCS/ISP), Texas centralized interim storage facilities (CISFs) for high-level radioactive waste (HLRW). Beyond Nuclear's contention is that both U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing proceedings violate the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended. Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel, as well as our allies (Alliance for Environmental Strategies, Don't Waste Michigan et al., and Sierra Club, represented by legal counsel Nancy Simmons of Albuquerque, NM, Terry Lodge of Toledo, OH, and Wally Taylor of Cedar Rapids, IA, respectively), are preparing for Jan. 23, 2019 NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board hearings, to be held in Albuquerque, regarding the Holtec/ELEA CISF proceeding. Meanwhile, Lodge and Taylor, on behalf of Don't Waste MI et al. and Sierra Club, have responded to WCS/ISP motions to strike portions of their interventions against the CISF targeted at TX. All this is but the latest resistance to the environmental injustice of dumping 213,600 metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel in the Hispanic borderlands of TX and NM (the two CISFs are but 40 miles apart). If opened, one and/or the other of the CISFs would unleash large-scale, high-risk, HLRW trucks, trains, and barges (see infrared photo of a HLRW rail shipment, above right) through a large number of American cities, through most states, and the vast majority of U.S. congressional districts. For more information, see Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage and Waste Transportation website sections.