Kevin Kamps and Susan Corbett testify Nov. 16 at Blue Ribbon Commission

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps (near left), along with Susan Corbett (far left) of the South Carolina Sierra Club presented before the Department of Energy's Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) on America's Nuclear Future on radioacative waste management issues on November 16th. The meeting was webcast live. Representing a community of 167 national and grassroots environmental and public interest groups, as well as over 3,300 individual petition signers, Kevin and Susan highlighted the coalition's sign on statement. This statement reflects four key principles: no reprocessing; isolation of the waste from the biosphere for as long as it is a hazard; “stop making it”; and “hardened on-site storage” (HOSS), as well as better monitoring, where waste is stored now, as the first, temporary step to meet these goals. You can also read the coalition press release, the core groups' (which helped lead the effort, by 30 drafters, to write the community statement) cover letter to BRC, Kevin's statement, Susan's statement, as well as the Principles for Safeguarding Nuclear Waste at Reactors (Hardened On-Site Storage). BRC has indicated it may close its public comment opportunity in the near future and retreat behind closed doors to hammer out a draft recommendation report by mid-2011 -- to be finalized by early 2012 -- on what to do to manage irradiated nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste now that the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada dumpsite has been cancelled. Send your comments to BRC as soon as possible via BRC@nuclear.energy.gov. For background information on radioactive waste issues, see the Radioactive Waste Section of Beyond Nuclear's website, the Radioactive Waste Project section of NIRS website,  the Radioactive Waste section of IEER's website, as well as the Reprocessing section of ANA's website.