Comments by XTO Energy, Inc. (XTO), a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, to NRC, re: the Holtec CISF DEIS

On 9/22/20, XTO Energy, Inc./Exxon Mobile, submitted comments to NRC, re: Holtec's CISF DEIS, defending its oil and gas development lease rights at and near the targeted site.

Thom Hartmann: Will They Turn New Mexico Into Nuclear Waste Dump? (w/ Kevin Kamps)

Thom HartmannBeyond Nuclear was honored and privileged to appear on the Thom Hartmann Program...

A proposed Nuclear Waste dump site could send all of New Mexico into Nuclear Winter.... Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear joins the Thom Hartmann program!

Here is the link to the 10-minute recording.

Beyond Nuclear's 27th set of public comments, re: Docket ID NRC-2018-0052, re: NRC's Holtec/ELEA CISF DEIS

As submitted via <holtec-cisfeis@nrc.gov>

Dear Holtec-CISFEIS Resource and NRC Staff, 

This is Beyond Nuclear's 27th set of public comments in this proceeding. (The 26th set was forwarded by the SEED Coalition on our behalf.)

I submit these comments on behalf of our members and supporters, named below. As you will read, they are concerned not about the risks in New Mexico itself, near the targeted Holtec/ELEA Laguna Gatuna site, but across New Mexico, but beyond as well -- throughout the rest of the country, along road, rail, and waterway routes, high risk, highly radioactive waste shipments to Holtec's CISF, as well as to Yucca Mountain, Nevada, on Western Shoshone land, would take place. Yucca is illegally and improperly assumed by Holtec, as well as NRC, to someday become a permanent disposal repository, an issue addressed by one of our members/supporters below.

Due especially to the numerous problems we have experienced submitting public comments via this <holtec-cisfeis@nrc.gov> email address, please acknowledge receipt of these comments, and please provide me with confirmation of their proper placement in the official public record for this proceeding.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear

Comments from our members/supporters, for inclusion in the official public record:

Re: Holtec Project CISF

I am a 50 year resident of New Mexico.  I vehemently oppose the Holtec project CISF.

Judy Baker 

261 Camino del Olmo 

Santa Fe,  NM 87501

Re: High-Level Storage

“Interim Storage” is an oxymoron and a blatant lie. Once this radioactive detritus is in place, it will never be (re)moved.

If Nevada is fighting permanent storage, temporary storage should be a non-starter.

David Preston

Comments opposing Holtec's CISF targeting NM due 11:59pm Eastern, Tuesday, September 22nd!

Just today left to submit comments against this monstrous environmental injustice, the world's largest high-level radioactive waste dump targeting the majority minority (BIPOC -- Black, Indigenous, People of Color, especially LatinX) State of New Mexico, which has already suffered very badly from 75 years of nuclear colonialism!

Here are three simple links individuals can use to file comments on the Holtec project with the NRC:

Nuclear Issues Study Group's of Albuquerque, NM---

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CleNVaLGWM42EU1xgDB_kZ0rUr7s8904/view 

or NIRS's of Takoma Park, MD---

https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=27069 

or SEED Coalition's of Austin, TX---
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/let-the-nrc-know-that-you-oppose-wcs-radioactive-waste-dump?source=direct_link&

Do all three webforms/sample comments, if you can! Add your own ideas to what's already provided!

Comments can also be filed directly to the NRC by emailing them to <holtec-cisfeis@nrc.gov>. (For any questions about that process, contact Stacey Imboden, Stacey.Imboden@nrc.gov.  For questions about the Holtec Draft Environmental Impact Statement, contact Jill Caverly, jill.caverly@nrc.gov)

See Beyond Nuclear's 26 sets of comments, as submitted, for more ideas you can use to prepare your own comments to submit to NRC by the deadline.

You can still sign your group onto a coalition comment letter! More than 100 groups have already signed on! If you have not already done so, please sign your organization on! To sign your group on, simply email <kevin@beyondnuclear.org> your personal name, title if any, organization name, city, state, and email address. Deadline -- 5pm Tues., Sept. 22nd -- after that, we'll still try to add you, but will be submitting in advance of the 11:59pm Eastern deadline to be sure it gets in.

See the Sept. 21st Beyond Nuclear and NIRS press release giving the latest figures on how many comments have been submitted.

With the NRC Comment Window Closing Tomorrow, Thousands Weigh in To Oppose Holtec’s Proposed Massive New Radioactive Waste Dump in New Mexico: NRC Public Comment Period Rammed through amidst Deadly Pandemic Despite Widespread Protest

NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR For immediate release Contact: Kevin Kamps,  Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216, kevin@beyondnuclear.org Diane D'Arrigo, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, (301) 270-6477x3  dianed@nirs.org Stephen Kent, KentCom LLC, (845) 876-8044 skent@kentcom.com

With the NRC Comment Window Closing Tomorrow, Thousands Weigh in To Oppose Holtec’s Proposed Massive New Radioactive Waste Dump in New Mexico

NRC Public Comment Period Rammed through amidst Deadly Pandemic Despite Widespread Protest [Washington DC – September 21, 2020]  With the window for public comment closing tomorrow, September 22, individuals and groups opposing Holtec’s “Consolidated 'Interim' Storage Facility [CISF] for Spent Nuclear Fuel and High Level Waste” have filed thousands of comments and an organizational sign-on letter urging the NRC to reject Holtec’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Docket ID NRC-2018-0052) and deny licensing for the project.  Holtec is seeking federal approval to take highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel, also known as “spent” fuel, shipped from nuclear power plants around the country to New Mexico, where it proposes to store it indefinitely in shallowly buried casks.  Experts say this will endanger people and environments in New Mexico and west Texas, as well as along the transport routes. “There has been an exceptionally high turnout for the comment process,” said Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist with the national group Beyond Nuclear, whose comments on the project are posted here. “At present writing, 4,200 people have sent their comments in, with more than 95% of them against the Holtec project.  At verbal comment call-in sessions, opponents outnumbered proponents by a count of 134 to 43, and that’s not counting hundreds more who waited on the line for many long hours but never got a chance to speak.”   Beyond Nuclear also helped coordinate an organizational coalition sign-on comment letter, which is posted here. There are 113 signatories from organizations in more than 27 states (plus one Canadian province), including a dozen national groups: Beyond Nuclear; Food & Water Watch; National Nuclear Workers for Justice (NNWJ); Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility of United Church of Christ; Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS); On Behalf of Planet Earth; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Proposition 1 Committee; Public Citizen; Sierra Club; and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom--U.S. The group letter says that the proposed project violates the principle of consent-based siting, because New Mexico does not consent to it.  It states: “We join the All Pueblo Council of Governors, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, more than a dozen county and city governments, the Alliance for Environmental Strategies, the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, the Permian Basin Coalition of Land & Royalty Owners and Operators, the Nuclear Issues Study Group, and the more than 30,000 residents who commented during the NRC's 2018 environmental scoping period in vehemently opposing bringing the nation’s high level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants through our communities to New Mexico.” The letter points out the Holtec proposal also violates federal law:  “Under current U.S. law, this project is illegal. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended, does not allow the federal government to take title to the high-level radioactive waste (commercial irradiated nuclear fuel) a permanent geologic repository has opened. So the federal government cannot pay for transportation and storage of the waste as Holtec wants. Legally, the license cannot be issued until a permanent repository is operating.” The signatories further object to the Holtec project because of its environmental racism, threats to water and wildlife, threats to significant Native American cultural sites, the dangers of transporting irradiated “spent” fuel, and the cumulative public health and safety impacts the nuclear industry has already inflicted on New Mexicans for the past 75 years. The letter remains open for more organizations to sign on, and will be filed with the NRC before midnight Eastern time on Tuesday, September 22. To sign, contact Kevin Kamps at <kevin@beyondnuclear.org>. Individuals can submit comments on the Holtec project until 11:59pm Eastern time on Tuesday, September 22.  Opponents to the Holtec CISF, and proponents of Environmental Justice, are urged to submit comments to NRC by the deadline. "Comment NOW ,” said Diane D'Arrigo of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, “because this may be your last chance.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ignored the request of dozens of groups and refused to wait until after the COVID-19 crisis to hear public input." “We urge all Americans on or near the transport routes -- more than 200 million, all told -- to comment and tell NRC that ‘We Do NOT Consent!’ to this,” said Kevin Kamps.  "These high-risk, mobile-Chernobyl, floating-Fukushima, dirty-bomb-on-wheels, mobile-X-ray-machine-that-can't-be-turned-off shipments of high-level radioactive waste would travel by truck, train, and barge through most states in the Lower 48. In this sense, we all live in New Mexico," said Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps. Here are three simple links individuals can use to file comments on the Holtec project with the NRC: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CleNVaLGWM42EU1xgDB_kZ0rUr7s8904/view  or https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=27069  or https://actionnetwork.org/letters/let-the-nrc-know-that-you-oppose-wcs-radioactive-waste-dump?source=direct_link& Comments can also be filed directly to the NRC by emailing them to <holtec-cisfeis@nrc.gov>. For any questions about that process, contact Stacey Imboden, Stacey.Imboden@nrc.gov.  For questions about the Holtec Draft Environmental Impact Statement, contact Jill Caverly, jill.caverly@nrc.gov To learn more about CISFs, see Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage website section, posted here.   -30- NOTE TO EDITORS AND PRODUCERS:  Kevin Kamps, Diane D'Arrigo and other sources are available for comment and interviews on request.  To arrange an interview, please contact Stephen Kent, <skent@kentcom.com>, 845-876-8044. Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org.