Pilgrim’s Progress: Inside the American Nuclear-Waste Crisis

As reported by Gregg Levine and Caroline Preston in The New Yorker.

The article quotes Beyond Nuclear: One option is consolidated interim storage. Under this plan, the spent fuel would be moved from plants in thirty states to a handful of regional, aboveground storage facilities—what Kevin Kamps, a waste specialist at the watchdog Beyond Nuclear, has called “parking-lot dumps.”

But of course, to move the irradiated nuclear fuel from a place like Entergy Nuclear's Pilgrim atomic reactor near Boston, to a de facto permanent parking lot dump in, say, Andrews County, west Texas, would require shipments by road, rail, and/or barge through most states, including major population centers. Hence, the risk of Mobile Chernobyls, Dirty Bombs on Wheels, and Floating Fukushimas.

NRC to Hold Conference on Spent Fuel Management

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2016/16-067.pdf

No: 16-067 November 23, 2016
Contact: Maureen Conley, 301-415-8200

NRC to Hold Conference on Spent Fuel Management

Registration is now open for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual conference on issues related to the management of spent nuclear fuel, to be held Dec. 7-8 in Rockville, Md. The Division of Spent Fuel Management Regulatory Conference 2016 will allow NRC staff, industry representatives and stakeholders to discuss regulatory and technical issues related to spent fuel storage, decommissioning and the transportation of radioactive material.

Online registration will be open through Dec. 2. To register, send your name, job title, organization and email address to DSFM-REG-CON.Resource@nrc.gov. Onsite registration will also be available at the conference. More information, including the preliminary agenda and a link to register to attend via webinar, is available on the conference website.

Glenn Tracy, an NRC deputy executive director overseeing materials and waste, will deliver a keynote address Dec. 7. Remarks will also be provided by Mark Lombard and Anthony Hsia, director and deputy director of the Division of Spent Fuel Management. The conference will include discussions and presentations on regulatory process improvements, fuel performance in storage and transportation, a “graded approach” to licensing, decommissioning, license renewals, consolidated storage and transportation.

The conference will run from 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., Wednesday and 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday, at the Hilton Washington D.C./Rockville Hotel, 1750 Rockville Pike, across from the Twinbrook Metro Station. A telephone bridge line has been set up for those who cannot attend in person. An operator will moderate the bridge line, allowing participants to ask questions at designated times. Anyone wishing to phone in should call 1-888-318-4510 and use passcode 8619338.

NRC Requests Public Comment, Schedules Meeting on Issues Paper for Packaging and Transporting Radioactive Material

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has announced:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2016/16-068.pdf 

No: 16-068

November 23, 2016
Contact: Maureen Conley, 301-415-8200

NRC Requests Public Comment, Schedules Meeting on Issues Paper for Packaging and Transporting Radioactive Material

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week asked for public input on issues to be considered in revising its regulations for packaging and transporting radioactive material. NRC staff will use comments received in developing a regulatory basis for a proposed rule.

The NRC’s current transportation regulations are based, in part, on standards developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an international standard-setting organization. The IAEA periodically revises its transportation standards to reflect acquired knowledge and expertise. The NRC is beginning the process to update its own regulations to be compatible with the IAEA’s.

The NRC and the U.S. Department of Transportation share regulatory authority over radioactive material transport. DOT is the lead federal agency for regulating hazardous materials transport in the United States and for interacting with the IAEA. The NRC will coordinate changes to its regulations with DOT.

To help guide public input, the NRC has published an issues paper that outlines areas identified for possible revision. These topics include the requirements for small amounts of fissile material, solar heat and external package pressure, and shipping low activity waste and large solid contaminated objects. The staff will also consider whether to create a new category of more robust packages. These issues are described in greater detail in a Nov. 21 Federal Register notice.

The NRC will hold a two-day meeting at agency headquarters in Rockville, Md., to give an overview and answer clarifying questions on the issues paper. The meeting will be held Dec. 5-6, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Two White Flint North, room T2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike. NRC staff will not take public comments at the meeting. All individuals planning to attend should pre-register by Dec. 2 to obtain meeting material by contacting Emma Wong at Emma.Wong@nrc.gov or 301-415-7091, or Thomas Young, Thomas.Young@nrc.gov or 301-415-5795.

The public will also be able to participate remotely by teleconference and webinar. Callers should dial 888-801-8932 and input passcode 4882584#. Those participating by webinar should pre-register. More information is available in the meeting notice.

The public may also submit written comments through Jan. 20, 2017. The issues paper is available on the federal rulemaking website, www.regulations.gov, under Docket ID NRC-2016-0179. Comments may be submitted on that website; by email to Rulemaking.Comments@nrc.gov; by fax to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 301-415-1101; or by mail to Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudication Staff.

Radioactive Russian roulette on the highways: Unprecedented truck shipments of highly radioactive liquid wastes

Investigative reporter Frank Fraboni of ABC 13 News/WLOS in Western North Carolina has filed the following reports, regarding unprecedented shipments of highly radioactive liquid waste from Chalk River Nuclear Lab, Ontario, Canada to Savannah River Site, South Carolina, U.S.A. -- potentially through Asheville, North Carolina, the setting for these reports:

Special Report (Part 1): Opponents say 'mobile Chernobyl' threatens North Carolina mountains (featuring Mary Olson of Nuclear Information and Resource Service -- Southeast, based in Asheville, NC);

Special Report (Part 2): Trucking uranium through the mountains (featuring Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear).

Beyond Nuclear on Radio EcoShock re: Mobile Chernobyls & parking lot dumps

Host Alex Smith of Radio EcoShock interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Specialist, Kevin Kamps, re: the proposal for so-called "centralized interim storage" of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at Waste Control Specialists, LLC (WCS) in Andrews County, Texas. Listen to the interview from the 32:00 minute to 52:15 minute mark in the recording.

(Please note this correction: The plutonium-contaminated waste barrel burst at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico occurred on Valentine's Day, 2014, not 2012.)

(Smith interviews U.K. professor Kevin Anderson before that, regarding the danger of counting on yet-to-be-developed technologies for reducing global warming gases in the atmosphere, in current plans to avert climate catastrophe. Smith and Anderson compare and contrast the technological hubris of such optimistic assumptions in the climate realm, with that of the nuclear power industry and its unsolved radioactive waste problem.

Then, in the last segment of the program, Smith discusses Robert Mercer, a billionaire climate denier who donated more campaign contributions towards Donald J. Trump's successful bid for the White House than any other single individual.)