NRC pleads lack of sufficient funds to resume Yucca Mountain dump licensing proceeding

Yucca Mountain's western face, as viewed through the frame of a Western Shoshone Indian ceremonial sweat lodge. Photo by Gabriela Bulisova.As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal, despite a ruling by a three-judge panel from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that the Yucca Mountain dump licensing proceeding should be resumed, a lawyer for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has admitted that there are not enough funds in the coffers to do so, with no relief in sight. The Obama administration, along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), have zeroed out funding for the Yucca Mountain Project for several years.

The Review Journal reported that the State of Nevada has vowed to fight on if the licensing proceeding is resumed:

"...Halstead [Director of the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects] offered assurance that Nevada's legal team is prepared for a fight if the appeals panel signals resumption of the hearings. 'If they restart the licensing proceedings, we're ready to bloody them up on 200-plus contentions, and 100 of those are really, really strong,' he said. 'This is not going to be a cakewalk through the license application.'"

As reported by the Aiken Standard, however, Aiken County, South Carolina -- home to large amounts of high-level radioactive waste at the Savannah River Site nuclear weapons complex -- is arguing the licensing proceeding should resume post haste, with whatever funding is available. Aiken County, the State of South Carolina, and the State of Washington sued the federal government, to force the resumption of the Yucca licensing proceeding.

Ironically enough, while Aiken County and the State of South Carolina seek to export their high-level radioactive wastes to Yucca Mountain, Nevada, pro-nuclear boosters are simultaneously volunteering -- and lobbying the federal government -- to import large quantitites of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel for "centralized interim storage," and even reprocessing, at the Savannah River Site.

States have no confidence in NRC's Nuke Waste Con Game

VT AG William SorrellAs reported by the Rutland Herald, Vermont and New York have filed joint comments with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the agency's Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule. The Attorneys General of VT and NY, who filed the joint comments, along with the Attorneys General of CT and NJ, were plaintiffs in the original lawsuit, which resulted in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals nullifying NRC's Nuclear Waste Confidence on June 8, 2012. The court then ordered the agency to carry out an environmental impact statement on the risks of long-term storage of high-level radioactive waste at reactor sites, such as Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee and Indian Point near New York City.

The State of Vermont Department of Public Service joined in the VT and NY AG's joint comments. VT's Public Service Board is currently considering whether or not Entergy Nuclear, which has actually sued its three commissioners by name, whether the out-of-state utility deserves a Certificate of Public Good to continue doing business in the Green Mountain State.

State of Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell (pictured, left) stated that "Until the D.C. Circuit’s ruling, the NRC licensed and relicensed nuclear reactors on the assumption that the federal government would take away all of the spent fuel from each reactor site at some defined time, so the NRC never looked at the possibility that the fuel might stay there for years, decades, or even centuries.” He added that NRC has to consider whether licensing new -- and extending the licenses at old -- reactors makes sense in light of the long-term environmental impacts of onsite irradiated nuclear fuel storage, and the uncertainty surrounding the availability of a permanent dumpsite at any point in the future. In the 1980s, the U.S. Department of Energy was eyeing 7 potential sites in Vermont's granite for a national repository, as well as additional sites in neighboring New Hampshire (Hillsboro) and Maine (Sebago Lake).

Sorrell's office will present oral arguments at the Second Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in New York City on January 14th, seeking to overturn a federal district judge's ruling in favor of NRC's rubberstamping Entergy Vermont Yankee's 20-year license extension, despite the laws of the State of Vermont to the contrary.

Both VT and NY are strongly resisting 20-year license extensions at Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee (already rubberstamped by NRC in March 2011, just days after the twin design Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 3 GE BWR Mark Is melted down and exploded in Japan) and Indian Point Units 2 and 3 near New York City.

24 Groups: NRC Rushing Nuclear “Waste Confidence” Process, Not Satisfying Court-Ordered Requirements

Critics have long dubbed NRC's "Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision and Rule" a Nuke Waste Con Game. In June, the federal courts agreed.An environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, has asserted that NRC's incomplete "Nuclear Waste Confidence" process should trigger continued suspension of all reactor licensing and re-licensing. Beyond Nuclear has applied the related court victory to challenge the proposed new Construction and Operating License Applications at Fermi 3 in Michigan and at Grand Gulf in Mississippi, as well as applications for 20-year license extensions at Grand Gulf Unit 1 and Davis-Besse in Ohio.

The coalition's press release began:

"In documents filed Wednesday with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a wide range of national and grassroots environmental groups said it would be impossible for the NRC to adequately conduct a court-ordered assessment of the environmental implications of long-term storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel in the two short years the federal agency envisions for the process.  

The groups’ comments and related declarations by experts are available online at http://www.psr.org/resources/nrc-rushing-nuclear-waste-confidence-process.html.  

In June 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the NRC’s 2010 Waste Confidence Decision and Temporary Storage Rule and remanded them to the agency for study of the environmental impacts of storing spent fuel indefinitely if no permanent nuclear waste repository is licensed or if licensing of a repository is substantially delayed.  Spent nuclear fuel remains highly dangerous for prolonged periods.  It has long-lived radioactive materials in it that can seriously contaminate the environment and harm public health if released.  Additionally, spent nuclear fuel contains plutonium-239, a radiotoxic element that can be used to make nuclear weapons if separated from the other materials in the fuel.  Plutonium-239 has a half-life of over 24,000 years."

The complete press release can be read here.

"Congress and the Fiscal Cliff," by Karl Grossman

Racing towards a radioactive cliff edge? Entergy is on a nuclear joy ride, in more ways than one!Investigative journalist, author, prolific nuclear power muckraker, and Beyond Nuclear board member Karl Grossman has published a piece in Counterpunch entitled "Congress and the Fiscal Cliff." Reflecting on the role of corporate cash in elections -- and in policy making, as members of congress return favors for the campaign contributions they've received -- Karl concludes:

"...As Alex Gibney, maker of the documentary 'Casino Jack and the United States of Money,' has said, we have 'a system of legalized bribery in Washington.'

This reflects directly on the low, low level of Congress doing anything—and, when it does, mainly serving special interests.

Change—major change—is desperately needed!"

In fact, investigative journalist Judy Pasternak at American University reported three years ago that, from 1999 to 2009, the nuclear power industry had spent $645 million lobbying the federal government (that's $1.25 million per week!), and "invested" another $64 million over that decade in the best Congress and White House money can buy in the form of campaign contributions.

Also in his article, Karl writes "...Indeed, making the rounds of the Internet in recent years has been the posting: 'Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers, so we could identify their sponsors.'" The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), American Nuclear Society (ANS), and nuclear utilities, such as the infamous Entergy, owner of a dirty dozen atomic reactors (see photo, left), have literally emblazoned their logos on race cars, as documented by Sourcewatch, so members of congress may very well be next!

Beyond Nuclear has documented snapshots of such largesse and influence, as on U.S. Representative Fred Upton (R-MI), now chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, with oversight on nuclear power matters. 

The National Diet of Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Accident Indepenedent Investigation Commission report emphasized repeatedly the role of nuclear utility lobbying on the lowering of safety standards, and regarded such collusion between government, regulator, and industry as the root cause of the nuclear catastrophe.

Frighteningly, as a new U.S. congressional session is about to begin, the nuclear power industry's influence will be as strong as ever. As but one, albeit major, example: nuclear lobbyists, and their friends in Congress, will be pushing very hard for passage of a major overhaul of U.S. radioactive waste law. Specifically, they are seeking authorization, and funding, for the launch of unprecedented numbers of risky "Mobile Chernobyl" irradiated nuclear fuel shipments on the roads, rails, and waterways, bound for "centralized interim storage" (parking lot dumps), at such places as the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.

INVITATION to CELEBRATE: The Nuclear Age in Quebec is Over! Gentilly-2 is SHUT DOWN!

"Rest in Peace, Gentilly-2"This tremendous good news just came in from Dr. Gordon Edwards, chair of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, and co-chair of the Great Lakes United Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force:

28 December: The Nuclear Age in Quebec is Over! 

Join us, in Montréal, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon

On this occasion, Sonomi and her two children-- refugees from Fukushima, Japan -- will be our special guests.

P.S. Québec will be truly out of the nuclear age only when we achieve a permanent moratorium on uranium mining, as has been done in two other provinces -- Nova Scotia and British Columbia!

(Nuclear utility Hydro-Quebec announced Gentilly-2's permanent shutdown, to occur tomorrow, last October. Gentilly-2 is a CANDU atomic reactor which has operated since 1982. Gentilly-2 will no longer generate any more radioactive waste. In fact, the only safe, sound solution for radioactive waste is to not generate it in the first place.)

Update on December 28, 2012 by admin

CBC has reported on this story. The article reports:

"...Environmental groups applauded the government's decision to shut down the plant...Michel Fugère, spokesman for the Mauricie's Green Movement, said the closure is a 'great gift' and represents 'a big day' for all Quebecers.

He pointed out that several polls suggested more than 60 per cent of the population in Quebec's Mauricie region supported the plant's closure..."

(Note that the article's report that dismantlement of the reactor would take place over the next 18 months is inaccurate. Only preliminary decommissioning activities will take place in the next year and a half; full dismantlement will take decades.)