Comment Now to Stop New Rad Waste Dumps

Participate:	Direct Goal Amount: 200 signatures Thanks to you, we’re at 52 or 26% →
Start Date:		Jun 08, 2011
End Date:		Oct 24, 2011
Goal Amount:		200
Current Amount:		52
Sponsor:		Nevada Desert Experience
Tags:		doe Environment/Toxics nnss Nuclear Issues Racism & Ethnic Rights Sustainability/Future
Description:

The Department of Energy (DOE) is accepting comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) Low-Level Radioactive Waste and GTCC-Like Waste. The comment deadline is June 27, 2011. Nevada Desert Experience hopes many people will take a moment to submit comments and has organized this e-letter as an easy way to do so.

The radioactive waste being considered in this EIS...
Is quite dangerous, where the use of remote handling equipment is needed in some cases
Is 98% radioactive waste directly generated from commercial nuclear reactors
Is actually intended to remain at the point of generation for at least 20 years
Was originally, but no longer, slated for Yucca Mountain, but could still be shipped to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) under one of the alternatives being considered.

What are DOE's Plans?
Current regulations say that GTCC wastes should be disposed of in a geologic repository. The only such site considered is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), east of Carlsbad, NM. Four other sites are being considered for near-surface burial in "enhanced trenches," vaults, or intermediate-depth boreholes. They are the NNSS, a site in the vicinity of WIPP, Hanford (WA), Idaho National Lab, and the Savannah River Site (SC). The DEIS also states that some non-DOE sites might be considered, but no such site is identified. Nor are any of the sites licensed or regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as required.

We want an end to the generating of nuclear waste, be it from commercial or military uses. This necessity is heightened by the disaster still unfolding from the Fukushima plant in Japan; the historic accidents at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and lesser known cases; the plans now underway to build pilotless, stealth planes that could carry nuclear weapons.

For existing waste, we support the HOSS method - Hardened On-site Storage - which the DOE is not considering! The DEIS rejects this alternative as non-geologic and only "long-term" rather than "permanent." Many people from around the country advocated for HOSS at DOE's GTCC scoping meetings in 2007 and recently during their public comment sessions. Using HOSS, GTCC waste and irradiated spent fuel would remain at commercial nuclear power plants in long-term storage so that they can be monitored and protected from aircraft crashes or terrorist attacks, eliminating the threats of both transport and disposal. Power plants already have storage for nuclear waste generated there.