Great Lakes United
YUCCA MOUNTAIN RESOLUTION
June 2002
WHEREAS, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy has recommended to the President of the United States that Yucca Mountain be designated as the site for a national nuclear waste repository;
And WHEREAS, the President approved this recommendation and the State of Nevada subsequently issued a Notice of Disapproval, effectively vetoing the recommendation according to the terms of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act;
And WHEREAS, the United States Congress may override such a veto by simple majority vote;
And WHEREAS, in December 2001, the General Accounting Office reported that the U.S. Department of Energy had suffered a loss of management control over studies to determine the safety and suitability of the Yucca Mountain Project, and that the Department cannot be sure when the site will open, how much it will cost, and how it ultimately will be designed;
And WHEREAS, the same report by the General Accounting Office noted 293 unresolved technical issues with the Yucca Mountain repository proposal, identified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including corrosion of waste packages, potential effects of earthquakes and volcanic activity, rapid water flow rates, and high levels of uncertainty in repository performance projections; and concluded that a site recommendation could be considered premature;
And WHEREAS, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a presidential‑appointed independent agency, has found that the technical basis for the Department of Energy’s repository performance assessments is “weak to moderate;
And WHEREAS, as currently proposed, the Yucca Mountain repository would not have the capacity to store the entire national inventory of commercial high‑level nuclear waste, and irradiated fuel must be cooled for at least five years before being transported, so that high‑level nuclear waste will continue to be stored at reactors in the Great Lakes basin for the foreseeable future regardless of whether or not the proposed repository opens;
And WHEREAS, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, high‑level radioactive waste may be transported to Yucca Mountain by truck, rail, and/or barge through Great Lakes states and on Lake Michigan as early as 2010;
And WHEREAS, the transportation of nuclear waste through the Great Lakes basin poses a significant risk of terrorist attack and catastrophic accidents that could result in radiation releases that would threaten the lives and health of the Great Lakes basin residents and cost enormous sums to clean up;
And WHEREAS, first response communities do not have adequate training in emergency response or adequate personnel or equipment to cope with a radiological disaster that could occur as a result of radioactive waste transportation;
And WHEREAS, the U.S. federal government would limit funding to states for training of emergency response personnel and for purchase of necessary equipment to cope with a radiological emergency;
And WHEREAS, property values are likely to fall, attraction of new business is likely to fail, and improvement of the communities may become difficult if not impossible close to transport routes;
And WHEREAS, we generally oppose radioactive waste transportation through the Great Lakes basin;
BE IT RESOLVED, that Great Lakes United is on record as opposing any and all legislation which would override the State of Nevada’s Notice of Disapproval and which would require radioactive waste transportation near or through the Great Lakes states to Yucca Mountain;
And BE IT RESOLVED, that Great Lakes United supports the creation of an independent presidential commission to re‑examine the U.S. national radioactive waste policy.
I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE COPY OF A RESOLUTION ADOPTED AT THE TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING OF GREAT LAKES UNITED ON JUNE 9, 2002.
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Liz Armstrong, Secretary
http://www.glu.org/english/information/resolutions/resolutions-2002/Yucca-Mountain.doc
Great Lakes United is a coalition of 160 community-based and regional environmental and conservation organizations in 9 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces devoted to protecting the environment of the Great Lakes ecosystem.