published by WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor on March 8, 2002.
Most people send flowers or chocolates for Valentine’s Day. U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham sent Nevadans a high-level nuclear waste dump, and 50 million Americans in 44 other States the prospect of up to 100,000 high-level atomic waste trucks and trains passing by their homes.
(564.5381) NIRS – On 14 February, Abraham sent his official recommendation that the United States’ irradiated atomic fuel and high-level radioactive wastes be buried at Yucca Mountain. But Abraham’s move had been expected since 10 January, when he had notified Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn of his intentions. What shocked even the most hardened watchdogs of the 20+ year long fight against the Yucca dump was George W. Bush’s immediate approval of the plan. Bush was supposed to review Abraham’s recommendation, an 80 pound document containing two decades worth of (incomplete, inadequate, and weak) Department of Energy scientific studies, as well as tens of thousands of public comments, mostly opposed to the Yucca dump. Bush slept on it, and approved the plan the next day, 15 February, sending his recommendation to Congress.
What happens now is governed by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. This Act was first amended in 1987 to “screw Nevada,” that is to single out Yucca Mountain – for reasons of political vulnerability, not scientific suitability – from the numerous potential dumpsites in other States previously under consideration. It was then amended again in 1992, ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to re-write more “reasonable” dump site radiation release regulations, because the poor geology at Yucca couldn’t live up to the old rules.
Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Gov. Guinn has 60 days in which to veto the president’s approval. Guinn has indicated he will use the full 60 days, to delay the Yucca steamroller as long as possible in order to give Yucca opponents more time to organize resistance, then issue his veto around mid-April. In coalition with national environmental and public interest organizations, NIRS/WISE is organizing a rally on the U.S. Capitol steps on April 16. At the end of the rally, grassroots activists from across the U.S. will go to the offices of their Members of Congress to urge them to uphold Nevada’s veto and vote against the Yucca Mountain dump.
Congress must then act to override Nevada’s veto within 90 days of continuous session (legislative working days), or else Yucca is defeated. The nuclear power industry has no intention of letting that happen. Already, pro-Yucca lobbyists are swarming on Capitol Hill. The American Nuclear Society has called upon its members to lobby Congress on March 5. Local elected officials from nuclear reactor communities are coming to Washington D.C. on March 6 to urge their Members of Congress to approve Yucca. This is in addition to the army of professional lobbyists the Nuclear Energy Institute pays to promote the Yucca dump in Congress on a regular on-going basis.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives, led by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (whose district in Illinois is home to nuclear power giant Exelon’s global headquarters) intends to try to override the veto as soon as possible, perhaps dispensing entirely with any committee review and rushing the measure to the floor for an immediate vote even before the end of April. Incredible but true, pre-vote debate in the House will be limited to 2 hours, despite the more than 10,000 human generations that will be impacted by high-level nuclear waste (the hazard of plutonium persists for 240,000 years or longer).
In the Democratic-controlled Senate, pro-Yucca dump forces face a bigger challenge. The powerful Assistant Majority Leader happens to be Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, a fierce opponent of Yucca. The Majority Leader, Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, has vowed that, “so long as Democrats control the Senate, Yucca is dead.” Ordinarily, the Senate Leadership could kill Yucca by simply not allowing it to come to the floor for a vote. But changing the rules seems to be the name of the game when the politically powerful nuclear industry is involved. Although Reid and Daschle may be able to delay the vote for up to 60 days by tying it up in Senate committees, they may not be able to block it for the full 90 days. It’s possible that pro-Yucca Senators could force an override vote to take place as early as April, although July is more likely; the vote could be delayed until the Senate returns in September from its month long summer recess.
NIRS/WISE, along with Public Citizen and a coalition of grassroots groups, is organizing a grand mock nuclear waste cask tour for the late spring/early summer. Not one, but six full-scale replica atomic waste transport containers will hit the road, visiting dozens of key States in the Congressional battle, educating the public that atomic trains and trucks – by the tens of thousands – are heading their way, unless they act now to stop them in their tracks.
The mock casks will form a convoy, traveling down the highway together, warning communities that if the Yucca Mountain dump opens, six irradiated fuel shipments per day for 30 years would travel U.S. roads and rails.
Several lawsuits against the Yucca Mountain Project are already underway in the federal courts. NIRS/WISE and a coalition of environmental groups, along with the State of Nevada, have sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its weak Yucca radiation release regulations. Nevada has also sued DOE over significant changes to Yucca’s 17 year old site suitability guidelines just two months before Bush Administration approval of the dump.
The State has numerous additional lawsuits in the works. An ultimate “state’s rights” case before the U.S. Supreme Court is a distinct possibility. These numerous lawsuits could significantly delay and even defeat the Yucca Mountain Project.
Only if Nevada’s veto is overridden in Congress and the numerous lawsuits are sufficiently resolved can the Department of Energy then submit a dump license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) during 2003. NRC could take three to four years to review the application.
If NRC grants a construction permit in 2006, DOE claims Yucca could begin accepting wastes as early as 2010 – or earlier, if DOE gets permission to set up a dry cask storage facility at the foot of Yucca Mountain. The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, doesn’t share DOE’s optimism: GAO estimates the earliest Yucca could accept waste is 2015.
The nuclear industry tried, but failed, to push dry cask storage at Yucca through Congress from 1996 to 2000. Their “Mobile Chernobyl” bills were beaten back time and again, marking a tremendous grassroots victory, which has set the stage for the upcoming ultimate Congressional showdown.
On a related note, GAO has filed a lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, seeking the release of still-secret information about meetings between Cheney’s Energy Task Force and energy industry executives, as from Enron, which led to the formulation of the Bush/Cheney National Energy Policy. Sen. Reid has joined GAO’s lawsuit against Cheney, urging the court to order the release of the hidden documents, which may reveal whether nuclear power industry executives met with Cheney on Yucca Mountain.
Although the fight against Yucca Mountain has already lasted 20 years, and could drag on for years to come, the next several months are critical.
To kill the Yucca dump in Congress will take a Herculean effort: readers, please flex your democratic muscles! Contact your Members of Congress and urge them to vote against the Yucca dump and the Mobile Chernobyl shipments it would launch. Phone the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121 to be plugged through to your Senators and Representative, or write: The Honorable (full name); US Senate; Washington, D.C. 20510; or The Honorable (full name), US House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515.
Sample letter can be found at www.nirs.org. It may be best to send your letters to Congress directly to NIRS/WISE Washington, D.C. office so that we can hand-deliver them: Congressional mail is sometimes arriving three months late (not to mention irradiated) due to the anthrax scare!
Source and contact: Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Waste Specialist, NIRS ( kevin@nirs.org)