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BEYOND NUCLEAR PUBLICATIONS

Waste Transportation

The transportation of radioactive waste already occurs, but will become frequent on our rails, roads and waterways, should irradiated reactor fuel be moved to interim or permanent dump sites.

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Entries by admin (191)

Monday
Oct212019

All Pueblo Council of Governors Opposes Largest Nuclear Waste Transport Campaign in Nation’s History

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 21st, 2019
Contact: Alicia Ortega, APCG@indianpueblo.org

Permalink: https://www.apcg.org/uncategorized/all-pueblo-council-of-governors-opposes-largest-nuclear-waste-transport-and-storage-campaign-in-nations-history/


All Pueblo Council of Governors Opposes Largest Nuclear Waste Transport Campaign in Nation’s History

Pueblo leaders voice opposition to license applications to transport and store high level radioactive nuclear waste in New Mexico and Texas

Santa Fe, NM – The All Pueblo Council of Governors, representing the collective voice of the member 20 sovereign Pueblo nations of New Mexico and Texas, convened Thursday affirming commitment to protect Pueblo natural and cultural resources from risks associated with transport of the nation’s growing inventory of high level nuclear waste from sites across the country to proposed semi-permanent sites in southeastern New Mexico and mid western Texas. The Council adopted a resolution expressing opposition to the license applications by private companies, Holtec International and Interim Storage Partners LLC, authorizing transport nuclear material, construction, and operation of a proposed multi-billion dollar consolidated interim storage facilities in Lea County, NM and Andrews County, TX.

Much more
https://www.apcg.org/uncategorized/all-pueblo-council-of-governors-opposes-largest-nuclear-waste-transport-and-storage-campaign-in-nations-history/

DateOctober 21, 2019 | Print ArticlePrint Article | |
Thursday
Oct102019

Radioactive racism is not progressive! Urge your Congress Members to oppose dangerously bad high-level nuke waste dumps!

 
Even though "Nevada Is Not a Radioactive Wasteland!" (see photo, left, showing Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps, and Native Community Action Council's Ian Zabarte, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. in 2018 at the "Zero Hour" youth climate rally), U.S. House bill H.R. 2699, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, was nonetheless recently rammed through the Environment and Climate Subcommittee on a voice vote, without so much as a peep of opposition. (See Oct. 1st Western Shoshone letter to U.S. House, opposing H.R. 2699, here.) Democrats hold the majority in the U.S. House, and thus are in charge of this subcommittee. Subcommittee Democrats include several members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. But H.R. 2699 would rush the opening of the Yucca Mountain dump in Nevada, targeting Western Shoshone Indian land, where decades of nuclear weapons testing already caused fallout of hazardous radioactivity over a very large region. It would even significantly increase the amount of high-level radioactive waste that could be buried there, thus increasing the number of Mobile Chernobyl and Floating Fukushima shipments, by truck, train, and/or barge, through most states, scores of major urban centers, and the vast majority of U.S. congressional districts, bound for the dump (see 2017 documents here for road and rail route maps). The Timbisha Band of Western Shoshone in Death Valley are directly downstream of Yucca, and would suffer the very worst contamination consequences from the leaking dump. H.R. 2699 would also authorize the U.S. Department of Energy to take ownership of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at private, consolidated interim storage facilities (CISF). This radical change to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended, would risk "interim" becoming de facto permanent surface storage, meaning loss of institutional control over time would guarantee large-scale releases of hazardous radioactivity directly into the environment.   

The current targets for CISFs are two sites in the Permian Basin, just 39 miles apart across the New Mexico/Texas border, in a Hispanic region not far from the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation (itself previously targeted for a CISF). New Mexico ranks towards the bottom of states on numerous major socio-economic indicators (even though some 40% of gargantuan U.S. nuclear weapons complex spending takes place within its borders!), and already suffers from intense fossil fuel and nuclear industry pollution. Just this week, a report found that shockingly high percentages of Navajo/Diné women and infants tested positive for uranium exposure; even though mining in the Four Corners (including on Pueblo Indian land) largely ended decades ago, cleanup of contamination at countless sites has gone largely to entirely undone. A U.S. Senate field hearing in Albuquerque just addressed this environmental injustice, and also the unacknowledged and uncompensated suffering of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders, victims and survivors of the "Trinity" open air plutonium bomb detonation on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico, the world's first atomic test blast. To now target New Mexico with high-level radioactive waste de facto permanent surface storage dumps adds insult to injury. The two CISFs would hold 213,600 metric tons of nuclear power waste, more than three times the amount currently targeted at Yucca (70,000 MT). As the former head of Environmental Justice at the U.S. EPA, Mustafa Ali, said on Democracy Now! on September 5, the countless high risk shipments themselves, bound for such dumps, would burden low income, people of color communities, along transport routes across the country, with yet another major environmental injustice.
 
Despite all this inherent environmental racism, H.R. 2699's identical predecessor bill last year, H.R. 3053, passed the U.S. House floor by a whopping 340 to 72 vote on May 10, 2018. (Luckily, the U.S. Senate did not take up H.R. 3053 last year, so the bill died. However, the Republican majority U.S. Senate has already taken up a discussion draft of legislation very similar or even identical to H.R. 2699 this year, in the Environment and Public Works Committee. This makes our action to stop it dead in its tracks all the more vital, because another blowout vote in favor of H.R. 2699 on the House floor this year or next, could tee up consideration of identical legislation in the U.S. Senate, bringing it that much closer to President Donald J. Trump's desk, and enactment!) Inexplicably, nearly half the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) voted in favor of this radioactively racist bill! But it goes without saying that environmental injustice is not a progressive value! Of course, such a bad vote is unacceptable, even if Congress Members do not belong to the CPC. Please contact your U.S. Representative, and both your U.S. Senators. You can be patched through to your Congress Members' D.C. offices via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Urge your Congress Members to oppose H.R. 2699, now headed to the full U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee. Also urge them to oppose any funding in Fiscal Year 2020 for either the Yucca dump, or for CISFs. And urge them to oppose S. 1234, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act of 2019, which also advocates for non-consent based siting of the dump in Nevada, and greases the skids for CISFs in New Mexico and Texas. Urge your Congress Members to support the Nevada congressional delegation's Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act of 2019 (S. 649), as well as to advocate for the very long overdue, common sense interim alternative of Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS). 
DateOctober 10, 2019 | Print ArticlePrint Article | |
Thursday
Oct032019

Urgent citizen resistance needed against Mobile Chernobyl bill

This rail route past the Capitol Dome in Washington, D.C. would be used to ship high-level radioactive waste to the Southwest for "interim storage" and/or permanent dumping.They're back. On September 26, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Environment and Climate, by voice vote, approved H.R. 2699, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, sponsored by U.S. Representatives Jerry McNerney (D-CA) and John Shimkus (R-IL). That is, not one peep of opposition, not a single question expressing concern, was uttered, not even by several Democratic members on the subcommittee who courageously and wisely voted against an earlier incarnation of this same legislation, H.R. 3053, just last year. Last year's version was ultimately passed on the House floor on May 10, 2018 by a whopping 340 to 72 vote; thankfully, though, the bill was stopped dead in its tracks, when the U.S. Senate did not act upon it. However, this year, the Republican majority U.S. Senate has already taken up its own "Discussion Draft" version of H.R. 2699 (and there is other dangerously bad nuclear waste legislation before the U.S. Senate right now as well, such as S. 1234, the Nuclear Waste Administration Act, sponsored by U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).). H.R. 2699 would speed the opening of the Yucca dump, by gutting its Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing proceeding. It would also significantly increase the quantity of irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste that could be dumped there, from 70,000 metric tons to 110,000 MT. And it would authorize the U.S. Department of Energy to take ownership of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel even at consolidated interim storage facilities (CISFs), de-linked from development of a permanent repository, thus risking de facto permanent, surface storage, "parking lot dumps." With loss of institutional control over long enough time periods, failed containers at CISFs would release catastrophic amounts of hazardous radioactivity directly into the environment. 

More than a thousand environmental, environmental justice, and anti-nuclear groups, along with the State of Nevada, its congressional delegation, the Western Shoshone Indian Nation, and other allies, have fended off such "Screw Nevada" attacks for a generation. So too have countless hundreds of grassroots organizations successfully blocked CISFs (previously called Monitored Retrievable Storage sites, Away-from-Reactor Storage, etc.), such as those targeted at scores of Native American reservations, like the Skull Valley Goshutes in Utah, time and time again over the course of decades. These little celebrated, grassroots victories, very hard won against all odds, have spared the country thousands, to tens of thousands, of high risk, irradiated nuclear fuel shipments, by truck, train, and/or barge, through scores of major urban population centers (including Washington, D.C. -- see photo, above). Whether bound for Yucca, or for Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance's 173,600 MT CISF in New Mexico, and/or Interim Storage Partners' 40,000 MT CISF at Waste Control Specialists, Texas, the Floating Fukushimas, Dirty Bombs on Wheels, and Mobile X-ray Machines That Can't Be Turned Off, would continue not for years, but decades. As the vast majority of U.S. congressional districts would be directly crossed by such shipments, you would think Congress would put the brakes on. But the nuclear industry's very large-scale campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures have blinded many with radioactive dollar signs. 

We must now rise to the challenge of H.R. 2699. Please contact your U.S. Representative, and both your U.S. Senators. Given that Members of the U.S. House are back in their home districts for the next ten days, this would be an excellent opportunity to get together with other concerned friends, colleagues, and neighbors of yours, to even request a face-to-face meeting with your U.S. Representative, to discuss these issues. You can phone your Congress Members' schedulers in their D.C. offices via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Urge them to oppose funding for the Yucca dump, and to oppose funding for CISFs, in Fiscal Year 2020 Appropriations. And urge them to oppose H.R. 2699, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019. To learn more about this bill, go here.
DateOctober 3, 2019 | Print ArticlePrint Article | |
Thursday
Sep262019

House Subcommittee Bill Would Launch Tens of Thousands of Mobile Chernobyls Over Decades

As reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Not only would the bill, H.R. 2699 (sponsored by U.S. Representative John Shimkus, a Republican from Illinois who is not seeking re-election) speed the opening of the Yucca Mountain dump, targeted at Western Shoshone Indian land in Nevada. It would also authorize the U.S. Department of Energy taking ownership to commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at consolidated interim storage sites -- as currently targeted at Hispanic areas of New Mexico (Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance) and Texas (Interim Storage Partners, including Waste Control Specialists, Orano of France, and Nuclear Assurance Corporation) in the Permian Basin. This would be a major reversal in decades-long U.S. high-level radioactive waste policy and law. It would create the very high risk of CISFs becoming de facto permanent, surface storage, "parking lot dumps." DOE has itself warned, in its Yucca Environmental Impact Statement, that surface storage, combined with loss of institutional control over a long enough period of time, would result in container failure, and consequent catastrophic releases of hazardous radioactivity into the environment.

If any one of these dumps open, whether in Nevada, New Mexico, and/or Texas, it would launch thousands, to tens of thousands, of high-level radioactive waste shipments. They would travel by truck, train, and/or barge. They would last not years, but decades. See, for example, the road and rail routes bound for Yucca Mountain (see 2017 documents).

And see here, for barge shipping routes on surface waters, which DOE admitted to in 2002, in the context of the Yucca Mountain dump scheme.

The CISF applicants have provided little to no information about the transportation aspects of their schemes, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has allowed them to get away with this, despite opponents' protests that this violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Rail route maps in both CISF applications account for only four atomic reactors, out of the around 125 in the country.

However, a WCS essentially admits in another application document figure, that any and all mainline rail routes in the U.S. could be used to ship high-level radioactive wastes to west Texas.

DateSeptember 26, 2019 | Print ArticlePrint Article | |
Thursday
Aug292019

National transport impacts of shipping high-level radioactive waste to NM, NV, and/or TX

The following was attached to a Beyond Nuclear press release re: the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board's ruling in favor of consolidated interim storage of 40,000 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel at Waste Control Specialist in West Texas:

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFO. RE: TRANSPORTATION RISKS OF CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STORAGE:

 

Dear News Media who cover the High-Level Radioactive Waste Beat,

FYI, see press release [above]. Please note that Toledo, OH-based attorney, Terry Lodge, represents a seven-group, national grassroots environmental coalition in this same legal proceeding.

Sierra Club is also engaged in this legal proceeding, represented by Cedar Rapids, IA-based attorney Wally Taylor. In fact, according to the NRC ASLB ruling, Sierra Club is the only party to have established legal standing, as well as won a hearing on a contention, in this proceeding. 
Holtec International is poised to acquire the numerous atomic reactors, and their on-site high-level radioactive wastes, from various current owners -- although competitors, such as NorthStar (affiliated with Waste Control Specialists), as well as EnergySolutions of Utah (which has undertaken the largest decommissioning in U.S. history, at Zion, IL on the Great Lakes shore), are still in the competition. If and when various atomic reactors shut down for good, one of these companies will likely take over the site(s) during the decommissioning stage, including the high-level radioactive waste management. 
Holtec would send high-level radioactive wastes to New Mexico for "interim" storage, while NorthStar would send them to WCS, Texas -- just 39 miles from Holtec, NM. Outbound transport routes would be the same for much of the country -- including the potential for barge shipments on surface waters, or heavy haul truck shipments, Legal Weight Truck shipments, and/or rail shipments on land, in most states, scores of major urban areas, and the vast majority of U.S. congressional districts.
For maps and documentation of the numbers of barge shipments that could travel numerous surface waters across the U.S. (the Great Lakes, rivers, and sea coasts), as well as what the risks of a sinking are, see:
See this map for truck and train routes nationwide: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2017/ymroutes17.png
See this document, for transport routes by road and/or rail in 44 states: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2017/pdf/States_Affected.pdf
See this document for a close ups of shipping routes in 20 major urban areas: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2017/pdf/Cities_Affected.pdf
See page 4-5 of 19 in this document for numbers of shipments (rail, truck, and total) in various states: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2017/pdf/Congressional_Districts_Affected.pdf
Note that all of these linked documents above are in the context of 70,000 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel being shipped to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Holtec NM would hold 173,600 MT, while WCS, TX would hold another 40,000 MT, for a grand total of 213,600 MT. Thus, a significantly larger number of shipments could pass through many to most states, if reactors continue generating high-level radioactive waste, and ship them to the Southwest, than is even accounted for under the 70,000 MT Yucca dump scheme. In the same document linked just above, beginning at page 7 of 19 on the PDF counter, a listing of the 370 U.S. congressional districts that would be crossed by road and/or rail shipments is documented.
Unfortunately, both WCS/ISP and Holtec/ELEA have included very little transport-related information in their application documents, leaving the public largely in the dark regarding routing, shipment numbers, as well as related risks.

DateAugust 29, 2019 | Print ArticlePrint Article | |
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