As Pilgrim Nuclear Plant Shuts Down, Focus Turns To Radioactive Waste

As reported by WGBH.

Funding for Yucca Mountain dump blocked in key U.S. House Appropriations Committee vote

As reported by Bloomberg Environment:

House Appropriators Approve Energy-Water Spending Bill

Posted May 21, 2019, 7:40 PM

• GOP amendment to restart Yucca project nearly succeeds in committee with several Democrats voting in favor
• Measure would provide $46.4 billion in discretionary funds, slight increase over fiscal 2019

By David Schultz | May 21, 2019 07:41PM ET | Bloomberg Law

The House Appropriations Committee on May 21 advanced a fiscal 2020 spending bill for the Energy Department, Army Corps of Engineers, and other agencies on a nearly straight party-line 31-21 vote.

The bill would provide $46.4 billion in discretionary funds, a $1.8 billion increase over fiscal 2019. The Energy Department would receive $37.1 billion, a $1.4 billion increase.

The measure now moves to the full House, whose Democratic leaders may be forced to re-fight a battle waged in committee over high-level nuclear waste storage in Nevada.

Nearly all of the Republicans on the Appropriations Committee voted for an amendment that would have given more than $26 million to the Energy Department to resume its licensing process for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

Four Democrats—Reps. Cheri Bustos (Ill.), Derek Kilmer (Wash.), Betty McCollum (Minn.), and Peter Visclosky (Ind.)—voted for the amendment, even though the committee’s Democratic leaders urged members of their caucus not to do so.

Surprisingly Close

The amendment, introduced by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), ultimately failed on a 25-27 vote. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) joined all other Democrats in voting “no” and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) did not attend the committee’s May 21 markup.

The surprisingly close vote illustrates just how contentious the issue of Yucca Mountain is in Congress. Nuclear energy officials have for years said the Nevada location is the best place for permanent storage of the country’s radioactive waste, but residents of Nevada, their representatives in Congress, and many others—including the state’s powerful gambling industry—have fiercely opposed this.

“The latest attempt to force nuclear waste down Nevada’s throat has failed, and I won’t stop fighting until we put an end to Yucca Mountain once and for all,” Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) said in a statement after the committee’s vote.

While multiple presidential administrations struggled to determine whether to move forward with the Yucca Mountain site, spent fuel has been piling up at many nuclear power plants across the country. Simpson said 48 of the 53 members of the Appropriations Committee have some nuclear waste being stored indefinitely within their districts.

“They’re voting to leave waste in their districts,” he told Bloomberg Environment. “That’s what they want to do.”

Democrats Want Interim Storage

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), chair of the Appropriations subcommittee that handles the Department of Energy’s annual budget, said allocating money to the stalled Yucca project would be counterproductive to the preferred Democratic solution to this problem, which is to ship the nuclear waste to several interim storage sites rather than sending it all to one site.

“We have a better idea,” she said. “The path that we are proposing helps us get waste out of districts sooner.”

The fiscal 2020 spending bill also rejects the Trump administration’s proposals to eliminate funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and the department’s loan guarantee programs; sell off the transmission assets of the four federal power marketing administrations (PMAs); and modify the laws governing the rates PMAs charge for electricity.

The measure would appropriate $7.36 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, $357 million more than in fiscal 2019 and $2.53 billion more than the request.

Interior Department agencies would receive $1.65 billion under the bill. Almost all of that amount would go to the Bureau of Reclamation, which is responsible for maintaining federal water and hydropower projects in the West.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Schultz in Washington at dschultz@bloombergenvironment.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gregory Henderson at ghenderson@bloombergenvironment.com; Chuck McCutcheon at cmccutcheon@bloombergenvironment.com

Manuel Luján Jr., N.M. congressman and secretary of the interior, dies at 90

As reported by a Washingtn Post obiturary:

Mr. Luján remained in the [George H.W. Bush] Cabinet until the end of Bush’s term in January 1993. Five minutes before the Republican president left office, he tried to transfer federally owned desert land in Southern California that he and then-California Gov. Pete Wilson (R) wanted for a nuclear waste dump.

Mr. Luján’s successor, Bruce Babbitt, rescinded the order, and courts determined Mr. Luján acted improperly.

Re: that last line, Babbitt only took that action, after years' worth of anti-nuclear activism forced him to do so. This included an occupation at the Ward Valley, CA site, sacred land to the five Colorado River Indian tribes.

Environmental coalition letters/backgrounders opposed to Yucca dump and Centralized Interim Storage dropped on Capitol Hill

Spearheaded by Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), an environmental coalition letter, signed by Beyond Nuclear and 80 allied organizations, was delivered to every Member of Congress on March 12, 2019 -- one day after the eighth annual commemoration of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.

Each congressional office (in both the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate) recieved not only the letter, but also a backgrounder on Yucca Mountain, as well as a backgrounder on Centralized Interim Storage.

Beyond Nuclear opposes risks of waste generation, pool storage, Yucca, & CIS, while advocating HOSS at Diablo Canyon

On Feb. 22 & 23, 2019, Beyond Nuclear's radioactive waste watchdog, Kevin Kamps, testified before the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Diablo Canyon Nuclear Decommissioning Engagement Panel (DCNDEP) in San Luis Obispo (SLO), California. The meeting was focused on highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel risks at the twin-reactor atomic power plant on the central CA Pacific coast.

You can view a copy of Kevin's power point presentation, here.

A video recording of Kevin's 30-minute oral presentation accompanying his power point, followed by a Q&A session, is posted on-line, here. A video recording of Kevin's 30-minute oral presentation accompanying his power point, followed by a Q&A session, is posted on-line, here.

(Video recordings of the full Feb. 22 & 23 sessions are posted, here. So too are all previous DCNDEP events.)

Joining Kevin in calling for Diablo Canyon's near-term shutdown, so that no more high-level radioactive waste will be generated, were many members from SLO Mothers for Peace (SLOMPF member Linda Seeley also serves on the DCNDEP).

Diablo Canyon is scheduled to permanently shut down Unit 1 in 2024, and Unit 2 in 2025. An agreement was reached between PG&E, environmental groups -- such as Friends of the Earth, Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, and Natural Resources Defense Council -- and unions representing workers at Diablo Canyon, that the atomic reactors will not seek 20-year license extensions. The electricity will be replaced by renewables, such as wind and solar, as well as efficiency.

PG&E recently declared bankruptcy, due to potential damages from the deadly Camp Fire in Paradise, CA, a wildfire it now admits was likely ignited by poorly maintained PG&E transmission lines. The Camp Fire was the deadliest in CA history, with 86 dead.

SLOMPF, and other environmental allies, joined Beyond Nuclear's call for Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS), instead of dense-packed pool storage till 2032, as PG&E proposes, risking catastrophic releases of hazardous ionizing radioactivity from a potential pool fire. Such a catastrophe could be unleashed due to an earthquake -- Diablo Canyon is surrounded by numerous fault lines, in nearby proximity, including two major ones.

Beyond Nuclear, SLOMPF, and environmental allies also oppose the Yucca Mountain permanent dumpsite targeted at Western Shoshone Indian land in Nevada, as well as so-called centralized interim storage facilities (CISFs) targeted at Hispanic communities in New Mexico and Texas, and the high-risk shipments of irradiated nuclear fuel to these proposed dumps.  In fact, SLOMPF has joined an environmental coalition opposing both CISFs. That coalition is represented by Toledo, Ohio-based attorney, Terry Lodge.

SLOMPF hosted Kevin, as well as Dee D’Arrigo from NIRS, at a Jan. 2018 discussion entitled “Transportation of Radioactive Wastes and Consolidated ‘Interim’ Storage.” See the video recording, here. 

Update on March 7, 2019 by admin

KCBX, Central Coast Public Radio, reported on this story.