An infrared photo of a high-level radioactive waste rail shipment. The high temperature of such shipments, however, is the least of our worries. A severe accident, or attack, involving such a shipment could breach the container, leading to disastrous releases of hazardous radioactivityBeyond Nuclear has submitted the following responses, and additional thoughts, to the U.S. Senate's Energy and Natural Resource (ENR) Committee, regarding its list of questions about its proposed "discussion draft" of legislation that would rush centralized interim storage sites into operation. If enacted, this legislation would launch unprecedented numbers of high-level radioactive waste shipments by truck, train, and barge -- a risky radioactive waste shell game on our roads, rails and waterways! (see web site postings below for more detailed information) The Senate ENR Committee had set 5 PM today, Friday, May 24th (close of business on the Memorial Day holiday weekend) as the deadline for responses to its bill, which was unveiled on April 25th, ironically on the eve of the 27th anniversary of the beginning of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.
Be sure to scroll down to the second page, in order to see the Beyond Nuclear Responses to the various questions (#2 to 8).
Executive Summary (referred to as "Question #1"); Response to Question #2; Response to Question #3; Response to Question #4 [correction: the casualty figure on page 4 of 9, first full paragraph, should be over 30,000 latent cancer fatalities, not 13,000; to see the cited reference, go to http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2001/nn11459.htm, page 13 of 31, Table 1]; Response to Question #5; Response to Question #6; Response to Question #7; Response to Question #8; Additional Thoughts.
In addition, Beyond Nuclear signed onto an environmental coalition statement spearheaded by NIRS.
A group of 7 Ph.D.'s also submitted comments. The authors included: Dr. Seth Tuler, a Research Fellow at the Social and Environmental Research Institute in Greenfield, MA who serves on the Board of Directors of Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA; Beyond Nuclear is a proud member group); and Dr. Kristin Shrader-Frechette at Notre Dame University, who wrote the 1993 book Burying Uncertainty: Risk and the Case Against Geological Disposal of Nuclear Waste.
Dave Kraft, Director of Nuclear Energy Information Service of IL, a 32-year-old watchdog group in Chicago, also submitted comments. On the weekend of Dec. 2, 2012, Dave coordinated the conference entitled "A Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High: Ending the Nuclear Age," at the U. of Chicago were Enrico Fermi fired up the first nuclear chain reaction, generating the world's first cupful of high-level radioactive waste, for which we still have no solution. The conference, which brought together hundreds, was devoted in large part to not only looking back, but countering the present Mobile Chernobyl bill. Beyond Nuclear was a proud co-sponsor of the event, as was Friends of the Earth (which also submitted comments today).
Bob Alvarez, a former senior advisor the the Secretary of Energy, and now a senior scholar at Institute for Policy Studies, also submitted comments. Beyond Nuclear often cites Bob's work on the risk of catastrophic fires in high-level radioactive waste storage pools, including in its comments to the Senate ENR Committee today.
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) also submitted comments. NRDC's comments included two attachments: written testimony by NRDC Senior Attorney, Geoff Fettus, presented to the U.S. Senate ENR Committee on 9/12/12, at a hearing on closely related legislation introduced by now-retired ENR Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM); and a 3/27/13 letter, signed by Fettus, as well as Tom Carpenter of Hanford Challenge and Don Hancock of Southwest Research and Information Center, sent to Energy Secretary Chu, re: DOE proposals to ship Hanford's high-level radioactive wastes to WIPP in New Mexico.
Thanks to everyone who has responded to our action alerts going back weeks and months, urging action be taken to stop this latest Mobile Chernobyl bill dead in its tracks.