Deadline for public comment on nuke waste site extended

As reported by the Albuquerque Journal:

Deadline for public comment on nuke waste site extended

By Theresa Davis / Journal Staff Writer

Published: Monday, April 27th, 2020 at 10:52pm

Updated: Monday, April 27th, 2020 at 11:04pm

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the public comment period for a draft environmental impact statement of Holtec International’s proposed nuclear waste storage facility in southeast New Mexico.

The comment deadline is now July 22.

The extension comes after New Mexico’s congressional delegation and at least 50 environmental groups said the public needed more time to comment in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NRC released the draft impact statement in March, along with a recommendation to issue a license to Holtec for the project. The facility would initially store spent nuclear fuel in 500 canisters, and the full project would have a capacity for 10,000 canisters.

Comments may be made online at https://www.regulations.gov or emailed to Holtec-CISFEIS@nrc.gov.

The Holtec Partnership, Probed

Statement from Lea County, NM resident, and We the Fourth spokesman, Nick Maxwell:

Greetings from Lea County,

Blessings continue daily. I have new information regarding the investigation into the Holtec-ELEA partnership in New Mexico. On Friday, the State Auditor officially confirmed an open investigation of my procurement complaint filed on July 17, 2019.

Below, please find my recently published commentary of the government misconduct being investigated.

I’d encourage you to share this information in any way to build public awareness. On social media, please share from my public Facebook post (linked below) or share the link to my commentary website (https://wethefourth.org) in your new post to generate a thumbnail preview.
(https://www.facebook.com/nick.maxwell.56/posts/10156883662191791)

To date, mainstream media has not reported on this matter.

#JusticeForNewMexicans

Nick Maxwell,
resident of Lea County

---

The Holtec Partnership, Probed

What the Hobbs News-Sun and Associated Press aren't reporting:

April 27, 2020

https://wethefourth.org

(LEA COUNTY, NM) -- This past Friday, State Auditor Brian Colón confirmed the open investigation of a procurement complaint filed last year against the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, a regional government in a partnership with Holtec International to site a large nuclear waste storage facility in Lea County.

Last July, Lea County resident Nick Maxwell brought the complaint to the state auditor's office and publicly issued his accompanying statement to the press. His complaint alleged that public officers of Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA) had colluded with executives of Holtec in a joint-effort to defraud a competitive public procurement. Notably absent from the mainstream media outlets has been any report about the state's receipt of Maxwell's complaint for prohibited bidding.

Equipped with New Mexico's inspection statutes, Maxwell had obtained the invoice of the attorney who had been commissioned by ELEA to draft a revenue sharing deal in the later months of 2015. According to the invoice, this deal was secretly slipped exclusively to Holtec in anticipation of ELEA's announcement of a competitive public procurement offering the purchase of the group's publicly owned surface rights for the purpose of siting a nuclear storage facility. Not long thereafter and near the beginning of 2016, the deal was kicked back to ELEA within Holtec's sealed proposal at the end of public procurement.

The attorney had been tasked with preparing the terms which outlined this procurement. Per those terms, proposals from the public would have to include a revenue sharing deal for consideration.

Maxwell has alleged ELEA's tax-funded kickback deal was a bribe: a fabricated promise returned by Holtec for allocating no less than 30% of their future revenues to ELEA should Holtec receive a facility license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and get everything operational. In effect, future costs associated with Holtec's storage facility may become artificially inflated to afford the "30% bribery cuts" that will get regularly paid out to ELEA for their enduring "local public support".

Even in the state of New Mexico, white collar crimes such as bribery can be charged as racketeering scams when organizations attempt to pass off their crime as legitimate business activities. If held liable for commissioning their henchman-in-fact attorney to broker a bribe, the energy alliance could face asset forfeiture of Holtec's promised land to the State of New Mexico as well as involuntary judicial dissolution of the local government-owned limited liability company.

John Heaton, longtime chief officer of ELEA and former state representative in the Democratic Party, has kept his high seat on the board of directors of the energy alliance despite the investigation.

Maxwell commented on the auditor's investigation, "The people of New Mexico demand and deserve transparency, honesty, and integrity from their public officials. This organized effort from ELEA and their partner to broker a favorable bribe had resulted in a less-than-competitive public procurement and should be exposed as a criminal racket funded from the public treasury. Any billion-dollar bid rigging conspiracy like this must be brought to justice for New Mexicans before it is too late."

author: Nick Maxwell

###

Beyond Nuclear press release: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announces it will proceed with licensing of proposed high-level radioactive waste dump in New Mexico despite illegal license term

NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR For immediate release: April 27, 2020 Contact: Diane Curran, Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisenberg, LLP, (240) 393-9285, dcurran@harmoncurran.com; Mindy Goldstein, Director, Turner Environmental Law Clinic, Emory University School of Law, (404) 727-3432, mindy.goldstein@emory.edu; Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist, Beyond Nuclear, (240) 462-3216, kevin@beyondnuclear.org.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announces it will proceed with licensing of proposed high-level radioactive waste dump in New Mexico despite illegal license term

In violation of Nuclear Waste Policy Act, license applicant Holtec International contemplates federal ownership of 173,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent reactor fuel to be stored at New Mexico site Beyond Nuclear vows to challenge NRC and Holtec in federal court

WASHINGTON, D.C. and SOUTHEASTERN NM -- In an astounding ruling on April 23, 2020, the four-member U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) acknowledged that an application by Holtec International/Eddy-Lea [Counties] Energy Alliance to store a massive quantity of highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico violates federal law – and yet ruled that the unlawful provisions of the license application could be ignored and would not bar approval. Beyond Nuclear has challenged the NRC’s authority to approve Holtec's license application because it contemplates that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) may become the owner of the irradiated reactor fuel. The federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) prohibits federal ownership of spent fuel, however, unless and until a federal repository for permanent disposal is operating. The NRC Commissioners acknowledged that Federal law prohibits federally-sponsored storage of irradiated reactor fuel unless and until a repository for permanent disposal is in operation. Nevertheless the NRC threw out Beyond Nuclear’s legal challenge to the project on the ground that Holtec could be depended on not to implement the unlawful provision if the license were granted. The Commissioners’ decision affirms an earlier ruling by the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that the storage facility may be licensed despite the illegal license terms contemplating federal ownership of the irradiated fuel. The Licensing Board accepted arguments by Holtec and the NRC’s technical staff that the license containing illegal provisions could be approved as long as it also contained a provision that would allow private ownership of the spent fuel.    Mindy Goldstein, a lawyer for Beyond Nuclear, stated, “the NRC’s decision flagrantly violates the federal Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which prohibits an agency from acting contrary to the law as issued by Congress and signed by the President.” Goldstein also stated that “the Commission lacks a legal or logical basis for its rationale that the illegal provisions could be ignored in favor of other provisions that are legal, or that an illegal license could be issued in ‘hopes’ that the law might change in the future. The APA gives the NRC no excuse to ignore the mandates of federal law.”    Diane Curran, also a lawyer for Beyond Nuclear, said the group will pursue a federal court appeal of the NRC decision. “Our claim is simple,” she declared. “The NRC is not above the law.” Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist for Beyond Nuclear, called the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act “the public’s best protection against an interim storage facility becoming a de facto permanent, national radioactive waste dump at the surface of the Earth.” According to Kamps, “Congress knew, in passing the NWPA, that the only safe long-term strategy for care of irradiated reactor fuel is to place it in a permanent repository for deep geologic isolation. Congress acted wisely in refusing to allow nuclear reactor licensees to transfer ownership of their irradiated reactor fuel to the DOE until a repository was up and running.  The carefully crafted Nuclear Waste Policy Act thus protects a state like New Mexico from being railroaded by the powerful nuclear industry, its friends in the federal government, and other states looking to off-load their mountain of forever deadly high-level radioactive waste." Kamps added: "A deep geologic repository for permanent disposal should meet a long list of stringent criteria. These include legality, environmental justice, consent-based siting, scientific suitability, mitigation of transport risks, regional equity, intergenerational equity, and non-proliferation, including a ban on reprocessing. This is why a coalition of more than a thousand environmental, environmental justice, and public interest organizations, representing all 50 states, have opposed the Yucca Mountain dump targeted at Western Shoshone Indian land in Nevada for 33 years." “On behalf of our members and supporters in New Mexico, and across the country along the road, rail, and waterway routes in most states, that would be used to haul the high risk, high-level radioactive waste out West, we will appeal the NRC Commissioners' bad ruling to the federal court,” Kamps added. -30-

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.

Update on May 2, 2020 by admin

Federal government rejects contentions to nuclear waste site near Carlsbad and Hobbs

as reported by the Carlsbad Current Argus

Breaking News: NRC Commissioners unanimously rule against Beyond Nuclear's appeal in Holtec CISF licensing proceeding

Breaking News

 

At 11am Eastern today, the NRC Commissioners held an affirmation session re: appeals in the Holtec CISF (irradiated nuclear fuel Consolidated Interim Storage Facility) licensing proceeding. The associated 60-page MEMORANDUM AND ORDER (including rulings), just released a few hours ago, includes a unanimous rejection of Beyond Nuclear's appeal of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board rejection of our legal challenge against the CISF's illegality, its violation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended. (See MEMORANDUM AND ORDER, Section B, pages 4-8.)

Beyond Nuclear and its legal counsel, Diane Curran of Washington, D.C., and Mindy Goldstein of Atlanta, GA, are reviewing the ruling, in order to determine next steps.

Similarly, our allies opposed to Holtec's CISF (including Sierra Club, Don't Waste MI et al. -- a seven-group national environmental coalition, Alliance for Environmental Strategies, and Fasken Oil and Gas), are also reviewing the NRC Commissioners' rulings, in order to determine next steps.

Speak out against Mobile Chernobyls in your community! Sample script for contacting your Members of Congress to urge they demand public comment meetings in your state/district re: NRC Draft EIS on Holtec's nuke waste Consolidated Interim Storage Facility

Please help us secure 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 in-person 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, such as after a safe, effective, universally accessible COVID-19 vaccine is developed. 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 in-person meetings along transport routes, and an equally long comment period, as did DOE [U.S. Department of Energy] on Yucca 20 years ago, at the DEIS stage. As it stands, NRC's still too short 180-day comment period ends on Sept. 22nd. Five in-person meetings were to have been held, all in the unwilling 'host state' of New Mexico. But now NRC has reneged even on this promise, and will hold only webinar/call-in meetings, prioritizing Holtec's demands over the public's and the NM congressional delegation's, in its drive to ram through this public comment period amidst a highly contagious, deadly pandemic emergency. 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 in-person 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 -- in-person 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."

You can look up your U.S. Senators' email/webform contact info., their fax number(s), and/or their postal addresses, for their various offices, by clicking through links, here.

Likewise, you can look up your U.S. Rep.'s email/webform contact info., their fax number(s), and/or their postal address, here.

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, and also see immediately below)

Update on June 18, 2020 by admin

Speak out against Mobile Chernobyls in your community! Sample script for contacting your Members of Congress to urge they demand public comment meetings in your state/district re: NRC Draft EIS on Holtec's nuke waste Consolidated Interim Storage Facility