Impact statement released for nuclear waste facility

As reported by the Albuquerque Journal.

Draft federal review boosts N.M. storage site

A proposed interim storage facility for nuclear waste in southeastern New Mexico would cause limited environmental damage, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's draft environmental impact statement released yesterday.

As reported by E&E News. (The article is behind a pay wall.)

How should we store irradiated nuclear fuel?

As reported by WORT, 89.9 FM Community Radio in Madison, WI. The program "8 O'clock Buzz" hosted Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste specialist, Kevin Kamps:

Controversy continues over centralized storage of “spent” nuclear fuel or hardened on-site storage. Kevin Kamps from “Beyond Nuclear” talks about the potential issues related to transportation of these materials on our highways, rails, and water to centralized “interim” storage facilities.

NRC DEIS public comment period re: Holtec CISF in NM underway

See the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) press release, here.

NRC has granted only 60 days for public comment, as compared to the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) 199 days for the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada dump -- targeted at Western Shoshone land -- at the same Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) stage in 1999 to 2000. This makes no sense, as Holtec's Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF) proposal is actually 2.5 times larger than Yucca, 173,600 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel versus 70,000 (and thus, 2.5 larger transport volume risks).

In addition, NRC has scheduled only five public comment meetings, exclusively in New Mexico. But DOE held 24 public comment meetings, not just in Nevada, but in a dozen more states along transport routes nationwide.

Please contact your U.S. Representative, and both your U.S. Senators. Urge them to demand that NRC hold a public comment meeting in your congressional district/state. Also urge that they demand NRC extend the public comment period to 199 days. You can phone your Congress Members' D.C. offices via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Learn more about the environmental injustice of the proposed CISFs at our Centralized Storage website section.

Update on March 11, 2020 by admin

See the full NRC DEIS linked here. It is entitled NUREG-2237 DFC, "Environmental Impact Statement for the (sic) Holtec International's License Application for a Consolidated Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel and High Level Waste."

It is 488 pages long.

Its ML# is ML20069G420. (That is how to find it on NRC's Byzantine ADAMS database.)

The NRC DEIS executive summary is 40 pages long. It is linked here.

Holtec Nuclear Waste Storage Plan Has Limited Impacts: Regulator

As reported by Bloomberg Environment.

Note, the article is behind a pay wall.