July 9, 2002
Dear Senator,
As a Board Member of Don’t Waste Michigan, a Great Lakes United (GLU) member organization, I would like to call your attention to the recent GLU resolution (attached) opposing Yucca Mountain.
At its 20 th annual meeting, held June 7 to 9, 2002 at Loyola University in Chicago, Great Lakes United adopted a resolution opposing the proposed nuclear waste dump targeted at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. GLU is made up of 160 community-based and regional environmental and conservation organizations in 9 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces. Please see the attached resolution, expressing opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump proposal for numerous reasons.
One reason for the resolution is the fact that Yucca would not remove nuclear waste from states that border the Great Lakes. Large quantities of high-level waste will continue to be generated and stored at operating reactors on the Great Lakes shorelines for the foreseeable future, whether or not the proposed repository opens.
Also, the Yucca plan introduces the new risks of transporting high-level radioactive waste, including catastrophic accidents or terrorist attacks in major population centers or even upon the waters of the Great Lakes themselves (DOE proposes barge shipments upon Lake Michigan).
GLU also strives to partner with Native American and First Nations groups. As a GLU member, we are also very concerned about the environmental racism inherent in attempting to dump our country’s most deadly, radioactive poisons on the sacred homeland of the Western Shoshone Nation, against the tribe’s will and in violation of the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, signed into law by the U.S. Senate itself!
For these reasons, we urge you to vote no on Yucca Mountain, and to support Senate Majority Leader Daschle’s opposition to Senate Joint Resolution 34 moving to the Senate floor.
Please contact me if there are any questions I can answer or information I can provide. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kevin Kamps
Nuclear Waste Specialist