Nuclear Waste Bill Vote on Tuesday!

[Michael Grynberg <grynberg@Citizen.ORG>]

  Nuclear Waste Bill to Receive Vote on Tuesday 
  
  The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1996, now known as S. 1936
  rather than S. 1271 (see below), will receive its first vote
  Tuesday morning.  The vote will be on the filibuster of a
  procedural motion that would enable the Senate to begin
  considering the measure.  If the motion receives 60 votes, there
  will be one additional opportunity, probably later that week, to
  filibuster the bill before an attempt is made on final passage. 
  If, however, the bill fails here, we may kill it once and for
  all.
  
  Senators Bryan and Reid (both D-NV) have brought all business on
  the Senate floor to a halt in order to send a message to their
  colleagues that attempting to force nuclear waste down their
  state's throat is neither acceptable nor easy.  Now is the time
  to send a message to your Senators that slashing environmental
  standards is no way to solve the nuclear waste problem.  You may
  be tired of hearing this, but calls to Senate offices are more
  important now than ever.  If you have put off calling your
  Senator because you wanted to wait until a vote was scheduled,
  now is the time to call.  
  
  Please call or fax your Senator and ask him/her to oppose S.
  1936 and support the Bryan/Reid filibuster against the bill.  If
  your Senator is already opposed to S. 1936, ask him/her to speak
  against the bill during floor debate.
  
  If you contacted your Senator several weeks ago, please do so
  again.  Senate offices often lose track of issues and need to be
  reminded of the strong citizen opposition to S. 1936.  Be sure
  to ask for the staffer who covers the issue.
  
  The Capitol Switchboard number is (202)224-3121.  Direct
  line and fax numbers as well as email addresses for Senators can
  be found on Critical Mass' voting index
  (http://www.essential.org/CMEP).
  
  Talking points on the bill are at the end of this message.
  
  
  
  A skunk by any other name...
  
  
  S. 1936 was introduced this week as a way of avoiding one of the
  filibuster votes that could have been brought had the prior
  bill, S. 1271, been called to the floor.  While S. 1936 contains
  several changes, the substantive thrust of the measure remains
  the same: an effort to slash environmental standards, transfer
  title of nuclear waste to taxpayers, and start the largest
  nuclear waste transportation enterprise in history before a
  long-term solution is at hand.  Most of the changes involve
  making the bill more like the House measure, H.R. 1020.  If you
  have been reading previous alerts on S. 1271, the only talking
  point that differs in the new bill is that there is no longer a
  provision allowing for reprocessing of irradiated fuel from
  reactors.  S. 1936 also includes new provisions that increase
  the likelihood that the Nuclear Waste Fund will not be
  sufficient to cover the costs of the nation's high-level waste
  program, increasing the potential taxpayer liability. 
  
  Some talking points on the bill follow.  Updated fact sheets
  reflecting the changes in the bill will be on the Critical Mass
  Web Page (www.essential.org/CMEP) by the end of the weekend in
  the Fact Sheets section of Radioactive Waste Policy.
  
  S. 1936 would:
  
  - Mandate the transportation of radioactive waste through
       communities across the country
  - Establish a repository radiation exposure standard that allows
       members of the public to receive radiation doses four times
       that allowed by current regulations for radioactive waste
       storage facility.  The standard set by S. 1936 poses a
       lifetime risk of one cancer death for every 286 exposed
       individuals
  - Forbid the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing
       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 loopholes in the National Environmental Policy Act
  - Preempt local and state laws
  - Preempt or curtail all federal and state environmental laws
  - Order the DOE to begin interim storage construction without
       NRC approval
  - Curtail public participation
  
  
  * 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 are inadequate and do not require
  compliance testing of full-scale models.   
  
  * 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.  Every operating
  reactor will remain a high-level waste so long as it continues
  to split atoms.  
  
  * The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, which is the
  nonpartisan, scientific oversight body for the nation's high-
  level waste program, has found that there is no reason to pursue
  "interim" storage now.
  
  * 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.
  
  * Shipping waste to a seismically site in Nevada is premature. 
  Studies to determine whether Yucca Mountain is suitable
  for a repository are incomplete.  If Yucca Mountain proves
  unsuitable, waste shipped all the way to Nevada may have to be
  shipped again.
  
  * 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.
  
  * 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.  
  
  For more information, contact Michael Grynberg
  (grynberg@citizen.org).
  
  
  Michael Grynberg 
  Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project
  215 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
  Washington, D.C. 20003
  Internet: grynberg@citizen.org