Take action on radioactive waste! Contact President Obama, your Members of Congress, and state/county/local officials!

What can you do about the radioactive waste risks facing our continent, and your locality? Contact your elected officials!

The White House

Please contact President Obama. Thank him for canceling the risky and astronomically expensive Yucca Mountain, Nevada high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) dump proposal: he has zeroed out funding for the project since 2009, and even ordered his Department of Energy (DOE) to withdraw the construction and operating license application submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Also urge President Obama to take action against Canada's proposed Great Lakes shoreline radioactive waste dump, as a growing number of resolutions across the Great Lakes region call for.

Finally, urge him to put a halt to the DOE proposal to ship liquid HLRW, by truck, from Chalk River nuclear lab, Ontario, Canada, to Savannah River Site, South Carolina. Liquid HLRW has never been shipped in North American history, and is unacceptably risky. The shipments are also unnecessary to begin with, and are proposed for no good reason whatsoever. The main driving force is SRS's hope to make $60 million on the project, as well as to keep its dirty, dangerous, and expensive reprocessing capabilities on life support -- facilities that should have been retired long ago.

Congress

Please contact your two U.S. Senators, as well as your U.S. Representative, regarding the issues listed above. Your three Members of Congress can be reached, by phone, via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121.

Urge them to block congressional Republican efforts (as by Rep. Upton (R-MI) and Shimkus (R-IL), attempting to revive the canceled Yucca Mountain dump project.

Also urge them to join congressional resolutions, in the Senate and House, opposing the Canadian Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump. The Great Lakes represent nearly 90% of the surface fresh water in North America, providing drinking water to 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations. If this proposed Canadian Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump is allowed to happen, it sets a very dangerous precedent continent-wide for burying radioactive waste immediately next to major surface waters and drinking water supplies.

Lastly, urge them to oppose risky and unnecessary shipping of liquid HLRW from Ontario to South Carolina. If these dangerous shipments are allowed to roll, they will also set a dangerous precedent for future radioactive waste shipments continent-wide, throwing even basic common sense caution to the wind.

Your State, County, and Local Government

Contact Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, for more detailed information on how these various radioactive waste risks affect your locality. You can reach Kevin by phone at (301) 270-2209 ext. 1, or email at kevin@beyondnuclear.org.

Yucca Mountain-bound trucks, trains, and barges would carry high-level radioactive waste and irradiated nuclear fuel on roads, rails, and waterways in most states (43 of the lower 48). Centralized interim storage facilities (parking lot dumps), as at Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, Texas, would launch such Mobile Chernobyls, floating Fukushimas, and radiological dirty bombs on wheels, as well.

It is high time to educate state, county, and local officials about these risks, and work to prevent them.

Your state, county, and locality could also pass a resolution opposing such risks as the Canadian Great Lakes shore radioactive waste dump proposal.