Resend: "Hug A Nuclear Lobbyist Day" Coming

["Charles T. J. Bennington" <charles>]

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  Action Alert -- "Hug A Nuclear Lobbyist Day" coming to the Senate
  Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  Calls needed to stop
  nuclear dumps.
   
       Wednesday could be "Hug a Nuclear Lobbyist Day" in the
  Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  The committee
  will consider two pieces of legislation near and dear to the
  nuclear lobby's heart: S. 1271, which would force a high-level
  waste dump upon Nevada, and S. 1596, which would clear the way
  for a low-level waste dump at Ward Valley, California.  Both
  bills are designed to circumvent planned scientific studies and
  sweep aside environmental objections.
   
  S. 1271
   
       Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Senator Larry
  Craig (R-ID) plan to introduce a substitute bill for S. 1271, the
  Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1996.  Like its earlier incarnation,
  the substitute slashes environmental standards, preempts local
  and state laws, and forces an unnecessary high-level waste
  "interim" storage facility at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) before a
  decision is made on nearby Yucca Mountain's suitability as host
  for a proposed repository.
   
  The new bill would still:
   
  -establish a repository radiation exposure standard that poses a
          lifetime risk of one cancer death for every 286 exposed individuals
  -forbid the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing
          radiation release standards for a  repository
  -transfer title and liability for high-level waste to the taxpayer before 
          a repository opens 
  -eliminate repository site suitability standards
  -carve holes in the National Environmental Policy Act
  -allow the broad preemption of local and state laws
  -order the DOE to begin interim storage construction without
          Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval
   
       One new clause in the legislation appears to open the door
  to reprocessing of civilian irradiated fuel.  Nuclear waste
  generators who run out of space may ship their waste to "entities
  qualified to provide interim storage and conditioning."  Although
  the definition of a "qualified entity" is exceptionally vague,
  the potential liability for the taxpayer is clear.  "Title to all
  spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste resulting
  from the treatment of that fuel... shall transfer to the
  Secretary [of Energy] upon packaging of the fuel by the
  qualified entity."  In other words, utilities will be able to
  have waste reprocessed, which will increase the volume and
  instability of high-level waste, and leave taxpayers to pick up
  the garbage.
   
       Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) plans to oppose the bill and
  offer several amendments.  One of these would prevent the
  transfer of title of high-level waste to the taxpayer unless the
  Department of Energy certifies that such transfer is necessary
  for the protection of public health and safety.
   
       If your Senator is on the Energy Committee, call and tell
  him that forcing the nation's radioactive legacy on Nevada is no
  solution to the nuclear waste dilemma.
   
  --Opening a so-called interim nuclear waste dump in Nevada would
  mandate the largest nuclear waste transportation enterprise in
  history.  Over 95 percent of the radioactivity in the nation's
  nuclear waste would hit the roads and rails of 43 states,
  exposing millions to unwarranted risk.  Safety standards for the
  transportation casks fail to incorporate the full range of trauma
  to which a cask may be exposed in an accident, and regulations do
  not require testing of full-scale models to ensure compliance.   
   
  --If citizens are to accept the risks of transportation, there
  must be some substantive rationale for moving high-level nuclear
  waste.  Currently, no such reason exists.  The Nuclear Regulatory
  Commission states that irradiated fuel waste may remain on site
  for up to 100 years.  Centralizing storage will not reduce the
  number of high-level waste sites as every operating reactor will
  host high-level waste so long as it continues to split atoms.  
   
  --Taxpayers should not have to assume liability for irradiated
  fuel in the absence of a long-term plan for the nuclear waste's
  ultimate disposition.  Until such a plan is in place, title and
  liability should remain in the hands of those who chose to
  generate the materials.  Support Senator Wellstone's amendment to
  keep private liabilities out of public hands.
   
  --Nevada, which has no nuclear reactors, vigorously opposes the
  dump.  If Congress forces the facility upon the state, the
  Republican rhetoric of "returning power to the states" will be
  exposed as rank hypocrisy.  The only way to place a dump in
  Nevada is over the objections of its citizens, state government,
  and entire Congressional delegation.
   
  --Shipping waste to the NTS is premature.  The only conceivable
  rationale for an interim facility at the seismically active NTS
  is if nearby Yucca Mountain is used as a permanent repository. 
  Studies to determine the suitability of Yucca Mountain are
  incomplete.  If Yucca Mountain proves unsuitable, waste shipped
  all the way to Nevada might have to be shipped again, thus
  doubling the risks of transport.
   
  --Congress already targeted Nevada as a repository host for
  political, not scientific, reasons.  Current law, however,
  forbids the location of an interim facility in Nevada, a
  prohibition designed to ensure the integrity of the studies at
  Yucca Mountain.  Congress shouldn't break faith with a state that
  has already fallen victim to the nuclear industry's whims or run
  roughshod over environmental standards to do so.  
   
  S. 1596
   
       On March 7, Murkowski and J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA)
  introduced S. 1596, the Ward Valley Land Transfer Act, which will
  also be considered on Wednesday.  The bill would order the
  transfer of the site of the proposed Ward Valley "low-level"
  waste dump to the state of California.  California Governor Pete
  Wilson, an ardent dump advocate, is pushing for an immediate
  transfer of the federal land with no environmental conditions. 
  On March 15, the Clinton Administration asked the Department of
  Energy to oversee tritium testing at the Ward Valley site, where
  previous tests showed rapid migration of the radioactive
  material, which indicates that a Ward Valley dump could
  contaminate the Colorado River. Further tests were recommended by
  a National Academy of  Sciences (NAS) panel.  The Administration
  also ordered a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS)
  to address public concerns raised since the initial Environmental
  Impact Statement was completed five years ago, further examine
  recommendations made by the NAS panel, and consider the effect of
  the proposed transfer on Native American sacred sites.  The
  Administration said it would not transfer the land before the
  environmental review and testing were completed.
   
       S. 1596 would only require California to tell the NRC of
  plans to conduct the NAS-recommended studies, but would force the
  land transfer before they occur.  The bill has no plans for a
  SEIS.
   
  Tell your Senator to oppose S. 1596.
   
   -- Tritium testing is needed to determine whether radioactive
  wastes dumped at Ward Valley would leak into the water table and
  into the Colorado River, a source of drinking water for millions
  of people;
     
  -- U.S. Ecology, the dump contractor, should clearly not be
  allowed to operate a radioactive waste facility. The company
  admits to engaging in illegal dumping at its Nevada site, and has
  also left behind heavily contaminated waste dumps at Sheffield,
  Illinois, and Maxey Flats, Kentucky;
     
  -- As a steward of federal land, the U.S. government should not
  give California a site for radioactive waste without conducting a
  supplemental environmental impact statement covering all threats
  to public health and safety, in addition to the impacts on Native
  American tribes.
   
  The Capitol Switchboard number is (202)224-3121.  Direct line
  numbers and email addresses for committee members can be found on
  Critical Mass' voting index (http://www.essential.org/CMEP).
   
  The committee members:
   
  Frank Murkowski (R-AK)
  Mark Hatfield (R-OR)
  Pete Domenici (R-NM)
  Don Nickles (R-OK)
  Larry Craig (R-ID)
  Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO)
  Craig Thomas (R-WY)
  Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
  Rod Grams (R-MN)
  Jim Jeffords (R-VT)
  Conrad Burns (R-MT)
  J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA)
  Dale Bumpers (D-AR)
  Wendell Ford (D-KY)
  Bill Bradley (D-NJ)
  Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
  Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
  Paul Wellstone (D-MN)
  Howell Heflin (D-AL)
  Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
   
  For more information, contact Michael Grynberg at Public Citizen 
  (grynberg@citizen.org).
   
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  -- 
  charles