(Please note that the following action alert below is focused on the Holtec/ELEA CISF in NM. Beyond Nuclear will prepare and circulate a similar action alert ASAP, re: the recently released ISP/WCS CISF in TX.)
HOLTEC/ELEA CISF ACTION ALERT
Please help us secure more in-person public comment meetings, by urging both your U.S. Senators, and your U.S. Representative, to demand one from NRC in your state/congressional district, once safe to do so. At the same time, urge your Congress Members to demand NRC keep the public comment period open indefinitely, and to only start the 199-day public countdown clock once the pandemic emergency is over, and in-person public comment meetings are once again safe to hold.
You can call your U.S. Congress Members' D.C. offices via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. You can also email, webform, fax, and/or snail mail your request to your Congress Members' D.C. and/or in-state/district offices (see links below). Here is a sample script you can use as is, or feel free to edit it:
"Dear Senator/Representative X, please contact NRC [U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission] and demand that a Holtec CISF DEIS [Consolidated Interim Storage Facility Draft Environmental Impact Statement] public comment meeting be held in our state/district, once safe to do so. Also demand that the public comment period be kept open indefinitely, and that a 199-day public comment period countdown clock commence only after it is safe to once again hold in-person public comment meetings. Given the high risks of high-level radioactive waste trains, trucks, and barges, and the fact that Holtec's CISF would ship and store 2.5 times the High-Level Radioactive Waste (HLRW) volume as the Yucca Mountain dump scheme in Nevada, targeted at Western Shoshone land (173,600 metric tons, versus 70,000 MT), it is only proper that NRC hold an equal number of meetings along transport routes, and an equally long comment period, as did DOE [U.S. Department of Energy] on Yucca 20 years ago. As it stands, NRC's still too short 120-day comment period ends on July 21st, and only five meetings would be held, all in the unwilling 'host state' of New Mexico. Given the accident and attack risks of Mobile Chernobyls, Dirty Bombs on Wheels, and Floating Fukushimas, and even the 'incident-free' Mobile X-ray Machines That Can't Be Turned Off risks of 'routine' shipments, adequate time, and numbers of meetings across the U.S., for public comment, are vitally needed. And given the environmental justice burden that high-level radioactive waste shipments would represent -- as attested to by none other than Mustafa Ali, former head of EJ at US EPA, on Democracy Now! last September -- public comment meetings must be held in transport corridor communities nationwide, including in our state. Please demand this of NRC, on behalf of your constituents."
Please spread the word! Working together, we can win the two-dozen, in-person public comment meetings, in a dozen states outside NM, that we are due, based on the hard-won DOE/Yucca precedent set 20 years ago! Congressional demands, per above, will make all the difference! Thank you for taking action!
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION (linked here).
Update on July 15, 2020 by
admin
U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (TX-35th) wrote NRC, urging 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, urging 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.
