Centralized Storage
With the scientifically unsound proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump now canceled, the danger of "interim" storage threatens. This means that radioactive waste could be "temporarily" parked in open air lots, vulnerable to accident and attack, while a new repository site is sought.
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June 8, 2019Beyond Nuclear rebuts NRC's motion to dismiss before U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Beyond Nuclear's legal counsel, Diane Curran of Washington, DC, and Mindy Goldstein of Atlanta, GA, sent a letter to the second highest court in the land, rebutting yet another motion to dismiss filed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 3rd, re: the consolidated interim storage facilities targeted at New Mexico and Texas. See Beyond Nuclear's June 7th letter, here.
Environmental coalition letter to Congress, opposing Yucca dump and CISFs
Beyond Nuclear joined eight other national groups, and more than 50 state and local grassroots groups, on an environmental coalition letter to both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, expressing opposition to the permanent repository (dump-site) for irradiated nuclear fuel, long targeted at Western Shoshone Indian land at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as well as opposition to so-called "consolidated interim" storage facilities (CISFs, more accurately "de facto permanent surface dumps") currently targeted at southeastern New Mexico and western Texas. See the group letter, here.
Specifically, the letter expresses opposition to: H.R. 2699, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act (NWPAA) of 2019; H.R. 2699's U.S. Senate equivalent, also entitled the NWPAA, which is a discussion draft and does not have a bill number yet; S. 1234, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2019; and any appropriations for the Yucca dump and CISFs.
Environmentalist groups appeal federal licensing of nuclear waste facility near Carlsbad
As reported by the Carlsbad Current Argus:
The opposition filed its appeals to that decision on Monday.
Diane Curran, lawyer for Beyond Nuclear — a Maryland-based environmentalist group leading the opposition — questioned the legality of the denial and of Holtec’s application.
“The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board’s decision is legally erroneous, because there are no exceptions to the clear mandates of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and Administrative Procedure Act. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission must make its decisions in accordance with the law,” Curran said.
“Beyond Nuclear therefore seeks reversal of the licensing board, and also respectfully requests the Commission to order immediate denial of Holtec’s license application to the extent that it violates the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.”