Nov. 25th Forum on the Decommissioning of Vermont Yankee in Montpelier

A message from Debra Stoleroff of Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance (VYDA):

After more than 40 years, our efforts have paid off and the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is closing in 2014 and will be decommissioned.  There are many ways to decommission a nuclear power plant; some more safe than others.

So, what does deliberate, thorough and responsible decommissioning mean?  What does it look like? And how can Vermont (and we) advocate for deliberate, thorough and responsible decommissioning with a greenfield when Vermont does not have a legal say in the process?

Deb Katz of the Citizens' Awareness Network (CAN) and Chris Williams of VCAN and VYDA will address what will happen to Vermont Yankee when it closes in 2014.  They will discuss transition, clean-up, long term waste storage and what role citizens can play In the process.

Join VYDA for a forum on The Decommissioning of Vermont Yankeewith Deb Katz, Executive Director of Citizens' Awareness Network  and Chris Williams, Director of VT Citizen's Action Network and member of VYDA

Monday, November 25,6:30 pm, at the Unitarian Church, 130 Main St., Montpelier
Sponsored by the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance

For more information call: (802) 476-3154

More.

Materials from Oct. 30 NRC public comment mtg. in Tarrytown, NY, re: its Nuke Waste Con Game DGEIS

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held a draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) public comment meeting on its "Nuclear Waste Confidence" in Tarrytown, NY, near the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, on October 30, 2013. Here are statements made and released by critics and skeptics of NRC's nuke waste con game:

NY AG Schneiderman statement (as read by Janice Dean, Assistant Attorney General, NY State AG's Environmental Protection Bureau), as well as press release.

Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (IPSEC) press release. The following personal public comments came from persons associated with IPSEC: Gary Shaw's statement; Jeanne Shaw's statement; statement by Susan Hito Shapiro, Esq.

Additional statements were made by: New York City resident Catharine Skopic; Laurie Seeman (Member, Rockland Water Coalition; Member, Sparkill Creek Watershed Alliance; Director, Youth Educator, Strawtown Studio); Margo Schepart (lifelong 10-mile zone resident, public school English teacher); Sally Jane Gellert (Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey resident, 32-miles as the crow flies from Indian Point).

West Lake Landfill: A Radioactive Legacy of the Nuclear Arms Race

Robert Alvarez, Senior Scholar, Institute for Policy StudiesRobert Alvarez (photo, left), Senior Scholar at Institute for Policy Studies, has prepared a report entitled "The West Lake Landfill: A Radioactive Legacy of the Nuclear Arms Race."

In 1973, the West Lake Landfill, in the Missouri River floodplain, and just upstream from a drinking water supply intake for St. Louis, became the illegal dumping ground for part of the Belgian Congo uranium wastes, leftover from the Manhattan Project, the race to build the first atomic bombs, tested in New Mexico, and dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. These wastes are loaded with Thorium-230, an alpha-particle emitting radioactive substance regarded as comparable, in radiological hazard, to Plutonium-239.

On Nov. 21st, Alvarez, along with Dr. Robert Criss of Washington University and Peter Anderson (Executive Director, Center for a Competitive Waste Industry), keynoted a presentation, sponsored by Missouri Coalition for the Environment, about an underground garbage dump fire now threatening the radioactive waste buried at West Lake Landfill. (See the event announcement and action alert). St. Louis Public Radio, KSDK, KMOV, KMOX, and the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported on the event. A video recording of the Westlake Landfill community meeting has also been provided by Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

In his summary, Alvarez reported:

"Of significance is the fact that the largest estimated amount of thorium-230, a long-lived, highly radiotoxic element is present at West Lake -- more than any other U.S. nuclear weapons storage or disposal site. Soil concentrations of radium-226 and thorium-230 are substantially greater than uranium mill tailing waste...The waste residues generated at the Mallinckrodt site were found to contain the largest concentration of thorium-230 from any single source in the United States and possibly the world. Thorium-230 concentrations were found to be some 25,000 times greater than its natural isotopic abundance. With a half-life of 77,500 years, thorium-230 makes up more than 80% of the measured radioactivity in soil at West Lake above cleanup limits set by the Department of Energy (DOE). Moreover, as the thorium-230 decays to radium-226, it will increase the radioactivity in the landfill 10 to 100 times over a 9,100 year period.

Given these circumstances, the West Lake landfill would violate all federal legal requirements, established over 30 years ago, for licensing of a radioactive waste disposal site...".

Criss has also prepared a report, earlier this year, entitled "Risk and Character of Radioactive Waste at the West Lake Landfill, Bridgeton, Missouri."

Kay Drey, a Beyond Nuclear board member, has long watchdogged the high-risk situation at the West Lake Landfill, along with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. They have long, tirelessly led the growing call for the radioactive wastes to be removed from this site vulnerable to flooding, erosion, and now underground fire. They are calling upon Missouri's U.S. congressional delegation to lead the effort to remove the decision making from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -- which has previously called for the West Lake Landfill to simply be "capped" and abandoned to its fate -- and transfer it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Rolling Stone reported on the West Lake Landfill fire earlier this year, in an article entitled "St. Louis Is Burning." The article quoted Drey, Criss, Anderson, Ed Smith of Missouri Coalition for the Environment, as well as local residents.

SAN LUIS OBISPO REJECTS FAULTY NRC “WASTE CONFIDENCE”

Press release, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace

For Immediate Release, November 21, 2013

Contacts: Jane Swanson, spokesperson, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, (805) 440-1359, janeslo@me.com

Linda Seeley, spokesperson, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, (850) 234-1769,lindaseeley@gmail.com

[San Luis Obispo, CA--] At least 230 people attended an important meeting of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on the evening of November 20. They came to voice their opinions on the NRC’s Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) and proposed Waste Confidence Rule.  The GEIS is an assessment of the environmental impacts associated with the continued storage of spent nuclear fuel after the closure of nuclear plants. The Waste Confidence Rule states that the NRC has confidence that, even though it has failed to figure out what to do with radioactive waste for the 60 years of commercial reactors, it will solve the problem “in time” to continue allowing the creation of more radioactive wastes.

Judging from the vast majority of the approximately 100 verbal comments delivered, this absurd assumption was the motivating force for most of the downwind residents in attendance. Some came from as far south as Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Those who arrived for the 6:00 pm Open House where they were invited to talk informally with NRC staff found the Mariotte Hotel darkened by a power outage. Those who arrived for the 7:00 pm formal meeting had to brave the rain and a lack of sufficient parking.  There was also a lack of sufficient chairs, so that as the meeting began the walls were lined with those left standing.

The NRC is traveling to twelve cities throughout the nation to hear public comment on its proposed regulations, which the Federal Court of Appeals ordered the agency to revise because the NRC had no technical basis for asserting that current on-site storage practices in fuel pools and dry casks would be safe for the indefinite future. The court ruling also forced the NRC to stop licensing or relicensing any nuclear facilities until its errors were corrected. The NRC has set a schedule to adopt its new Waste Confidence ruel within two years so that it can resume the issuing of licenses, even though its own staff declared it would take at least seven years to do an adequate job.

The vast majority of speakers shared the opinion that Diablo Canyon nuclear plant is no place to store radioactive nuclear waste for the undetermined future, in large part because of the 13 earthquake faults that surround the two reactors.

Many, including San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill, urged the NRC to order PG&E to transfer the radioactive wastes into dry cask storage on an accelerated schedule, rather than leaving the rods in densely packed spent fuel pools. Some pointed out that the pools are vulnerable to accident or terrorist attack because they are not protected by thick concrete in the way the reactors are.  

Many speakers, including all of those who identified themselves as members of San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, urged the NRC to shut down Diablo Canyon and all nuclear plants because there is nowhere to put the waste, creating an intolerable burden on future generations – all for the sake of boiling water for our needs today.

Fukushima was brought up many times as a warning and an illustration of the dangers posed by nuclear technology.  It was pointed out that the entire Pacific Ocean, and indeed the west coast of the United States, is seriously threatened by the radiation from Japan. Several also pointed out that right up until the minute before the earthquake and tsunami hit Fukushima, the plant operators were fully confident that their plants were safe.

Jane Swanson, a spokesperson for San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, pointed out that in determining the risks of a spent fuel pool accident, the NRC relied on an outdated 1994 study of plants east of the Rocky Mountains. And then, in an unsupported leap of faith, it claims that the risks and consequences of an accident are the same for the west coast plants, despite their very unique geology.

Sherry Lewis of Mothers for Peace took PG&E to task for using the terms “used” and “spent” fuel to imply that the energy in the fuel rods was all consumed. On the contrary, she explained, the fuel has to be removed from the reactor core because the fission process has made it much more radioactive and unstable as elements not found in nature are created.

Among the other issues raised by the public were that California does not need the electricity from Diablo; that a combination of conservation and increased use of truly sustainable sources of energy can fill our needs. Several pointed out that nuclear power is not an answer to climate change because it produces carbon in the mining and enrichment of uranium and in the huge volumes of concrete used in construction.

Several speakers pointed out that NRC rules are useless because they are not enforced; a prime example being allowing Diablo to operate despite the fact that new information about nearby earthquake faults shows that the plant could not withstand the predicted ground motions from some of the nearest faults.

The bottom line of most of the speakers was that the NRC should be in the business of protecting public safety, rather than protecting the profits of the industry it is supposed to regulate. The new proposed GEIS and Rule were strongly rejected.

Update on November 25, 2013 by admin

The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported on this story.

U.S. Congressmen, Cities of Toronto, Kingston, and Windsor, ON, join opposition to Canada's Great Lakes radioactive waste dump

As reported by the Macomb Daily Tribune, four Democratic U.S. Congressmen from Michigan have joined the growing chorus questioning the Great Lakes radioactive waste dump:

"U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, along with several fellow Democrats in the Michigan congressional delegation --Reps. Dan Kildee of Flint, Sander Levin of Royal Oak, who represents much of Macomb County, and John Dingell of Dearbon -- sent a letter to the Canadian review panel urging it to consider the potential threat that the site could pose to the Great Lakes. They also called for an open dialogue as the process proceeds."

Here is the letter the four U.S. Congressmen wrote to the federal Canadian Joint Review Panel overseeing the environmental assessment of the proposal.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI's 5th District) issued a press release.

Rep. Levin is the Ranking Member on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Dingell is the longest-serving Member of the U.S. House in history. Rep. Peters has announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Carl Levin (Sandy's younger brother), who is retiring.

They thus join with both of MI's Democratic U.S. Senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, in expressing opposition to Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) proposed Deep Geologic Repository (DGR, or Deep Geologic Repository, DUD) on the Lake Huron shore. In the Michigan State Legislature, Senator Hoon-Yung Hopgood and Representative Sarah Roberts have led the opposition to the dump.

Meanwhile, Canada's largest city -- Toronto, population 2.8 million -- just passed a resolution opposing the DUD (critics' sarcastic appellation for the DGR, standing for Deep Underground Dump).

This was followed by a resolution opposing OPG's DUD on Nov. 19th by the City of Kingston, Ontario, population 123,363. Kingston is where Lake Ontario flows into the St. Lawrence River.

On Oct. 27th, USA Today reprinted a Detroit Free Press article about the DGR.

The Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump petition now has nearly 42,600 signatures. If you haven't signed yet, plesae do. And please spread the word! Stop the Great Lakes Nuclear Dump also has a sample letter you can use to contact your elected officials about this issue.

If you live in the Great Lakes Basin -- or if you regard the Great Lakes as a precious natural resource, the irreplacable drinking water supply for 40 million people in 8 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a large number of Native American First Nations -- please urge your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative to join Michigan's in expressing opposition to the OPG DUD targeted at the Lake Huron shore! You can call your Members of Congress via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Update on November 22, 2013 by admin

The City of Windsor, Ontario has also passed a resolution opposing OPG's DUD! Its population is 215,000. It is Canada's southern-most city, and the only Canadian city to look north to see the U.S. -- specifically, the City of Detroit, MI, just across the Detroit River from Windsor!

Update on November 26, 2013 by admin

The Associated Press has reported on this story. The article quotes local residents near Bruce Nuclear, Beyond Nuclear allies in the struggle against OPG's DUD:

'...Most of the waste would decay within 300 years, but the company acknowledges the intermediate waste would stay radioactive for more than 100,000 years. That's too long for Eugene Bourgeois, who has a wool yarn business near Bruce Power.

"We have only recently discovered radioactivity," he said. "It's arrogant to think we're smart enough to know what it will do to life on this planet over such a long time."

Beverly Fernandez, leader of the group that started the online petition, lives in Saugeen Shores but admits she's focusing on rally[ing] opposition outside the area because the industry is so popular in Bruce County -- which she dryly labels "the nuclear oasis."...'

The article also reports:

'...But Charles Rhodes, an engineer and physicist, contended seeping groundwater would fill the chamber in as little as a year, become contaminated and eventually reach the lake through tiny cracks in the rock.

"It's only a question of how long, and how toxic it will be when it gets there," he said in an interview...'

Update on November 28, 2013 by admin

The Town of Ajax "By the Lake" (Lake Ontario, that is), just east of Toronto, near the 8-reactor Pickering Nuclear Power Plant, has also passed a resolution against the DUD. Ajax, as of 2011, had a population of 109,600.

This takes the total population of municipalities (cities, towns, townships, counties, villages, etc.) with resolutions against the DUD to around 17.8 million.