Critics have long dubbed NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence a Con GameThanks to everyone who submitted comments to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by its absurdly short Jan. 2nd deadline regarding the scoping for the court-ordered environmental impact statement on the agency's Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule. Beyond Nuclear joined a coalition of environmental groups and states in submitting comments to NRC. The environmental coalition's comments were buttressed by expert testimony from Dr. Arjun Makhijani (IEER), Dr. Gordon Thompson (IRSS), and Phillip Museegas (Riverkeeper).
As a next step on NRC's Nuke Waste Con Game, please consider attending an NRC monthly update conference call, to be held on Wed., Jan. 16 from 1:30-2:30 PM Eastern. The toll-free number is 1-800-857-2553, passcode 3682386.
On another vital radioactive waste battlefront, NIRS has put out an alert against radioactive metal "recycling." NIRS asks, "Will the next zipper on your pants be radioactive? How about your silverware?", and explains:
"The Department of Energy wants to mix radioactive metal from nuclear weapons factories with clean recycled metal and let it enter into general commerce--where it could be used for any purpose.
It's a foot in the door for revival of a vast--and discredited--radioactive waste deregulation plan defeated in 1992.
On the good news front, showing that citizen action does make a difference, a quarter-century of DOE and nuclear power industry targeting of the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah for a high-level radioactive waste parking lot dump has ended with the utility consortium Private Fuel Storage LLC pulling the plug on the proposal, despite having an NRC license in hand. Nearly 450 groups opposed PFS's radioactively racist plan.
Also, despite more than a quarter-century of its being targeted for the national dumpsite for high-level radioactive waste, President Obama and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) -- backed by the support of more than 1,000 environmental groups -- still stand strong against the Yucca Mountain dump proposal. The Obama administration has zeroed out funding for the project; Sen. Reid stands ready to nip in the bud any attempts to restore funding on Capitol Hill.