[Peace] Please help --Yucca Mt. vote -- the REAL thing!
Barbara Dyskant
bdyskant at earthlink.net
Sun Feb 24 20:23:51 CST 2002
YUCCA MOUNTAIN VOTE --
This came in from David Kraft at the Nuclear Energy Information Service. This
would be really scary if it passes.
Barbara
_____________________________________
Hello All --
By now we're sure you've heard -- both Sec. of Energy Spencer Abraham and
President George W. Bush have recommended the controversial Yucca. Mt., NV
site
to become the Nation's first high-level radioactive waste perpetual storage
facility.
NEIS has opposed this siting the past few years, and for the following
reasons:
* Finding chlorine-36 — produced during nuclear weapons tests — inside
the
mountain. Nuclear tests have only occurred the past 60 years. A pathway
exists for Cl-36 to enter, suggesting a pathway also exists for
radioactive
materials to escape.
* Yucca Mt. is in a geologically active area. Evidence of volcanism
within
the past 10,000 years exists; and 625 earthquakes 2.5 or greater on the
Richter scale within 50 miles of Yucca since 1976. A 5.6 magnitude
earthquake did extensive damage to DOE's Project Field Office in 1992.
* Evidence suggests that hot water once welled up from beneath Yucca Mt.
into the strata under consideration for the HLRW. If this happens again
while wastes are present, they will be easily released.
* Scientists recently discovered that long-lived plutonium in HLRW
migrates
far faster than previously thought, and could actually reach aquifers at
Yucca within 70 years once released.
* Moisture destroyed almost 80% of measuring equipment in a test chamber
within one year, suggesting the mountain may not be as dry as thought.
Recent revelations about the Yucca Mt. site all argue against its selection:
* DOE's December, 2001, revised weakening of its standards so the
government no longer must prove that the site's underground rock
formations
would prevent radioactive contamination of the environment;
* November, 2001 GAO study states a "loss of management control" of
studies on the safety and suitability of Yucca Mt. to hold thousands of
tons of HLRW;
* Dept. of Transportation revelations that it is not prepared to deal
with
massive amounts of HLRW transport that Yucca Mt. and WIPP would generate
(36,300 truck shipments would go through Illinois, according to DOE
estimates);
* conflict of interest charges against DOE and its contractors;
* the federal government's Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
reporting
to DOE and Congress in January, 2002, that "the technical basis for the
D.O.E.'s repository performance estimates is weak to moderate at this
time"
and concluding, "The board has limited confidence in current performance
estimates generated by the D.O.E.'s performance assessment model;"
* and most recently, allegations by former DOE Yucca Mt. project manager
John Bartlett stating that the site would never achieve the standards the
law requires.
The Nation needs REAL solutions for its HLRW problem. Yucca Mt. is a
political
sham, a way to allow the nuclear industry to keep making wastes, regardless of
the effects on people, the environment, or the economy.
The likely scenario is that the State of Nevada will take around 60 days to
file its formal veto against the site with Congress. Congress will then
have at
most 90 days to get both the Senate and the House to override Nevada's veto by
simple majority. The House vote seems like it will be in favor of Yucca Mt.
This does NOT mean that you shouldn't contact your Rep. about this; it's
merely the prevailing thinking about what's winnable given what's known to
date. This means that the Senate is the place where there is some hope of
correcting the mistake.
Here's what you can do:
1.) Contact Senators Richard Durbin (D.-IL) and Peter Fitzgerald (R.-IL):
Here are the contact numbers you need:
Sen. Peter Fitzgerald Sen. Richard
Durbin
555 Senate Dirksen Office Building 332 Senate Dirksen
Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C.
20510
(202)224-2854 ph; (202)228-1372 fax (202)224-2152 ph;
(202)228-0400 fax
e-mail:
e-mail:
senator_fitzgerald at fitzgerald.senate.gov dick at durbin.senate.gov
district phone: (312)886-3506 district phone:
(312)353-4952
If your senator is someone else, you can find the contact information by going
to "Thomas -- U.S. Senate on the Internet" at:
<http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfm>http://www.senate.gov/
senators/senator_by_state.cfm
2.) Get those letters to the editors out there....:
The Nuclear Energy Institute in all probability has been providing the
editorial boards in Illinois with media kits designed to get people here to
support a Yucca Mt. dump, especially since Illinois produces more HLRW than
anyone else; has more in storage, and therefore has a vested interest in being
NIMBY's. This is one of two main editorial themes we have been seeing so
far.
The other is the "myth" that national security against terrorists will be
enhanced by having the "one, centralized, remote" Yucca Mt. facility, as
opposed to "sites scattered" (as the Chicago Tribune puts it) around the
country. This, even though those scattered sites MUST remain open as long as
the reactors are open.
Here's a little "go 'round" we've had with the Chicago Tribune on this point.
They have refused to make this correction to date:
TRIBUNE: "Congress likely will vote on this again in the next few months, and
today the risk of
terrorism makes a central and secure nuclear waste repository all the
more urgent...." etc."...One
centralized, permanent storage site would be far safer, and far easier
to protect, than sites scattered
throughout the country.....That alone ought to persuade Durbin to
rethink his position.... The risk of terrorist attacks against scattered
nuclear power plants and local storage facilities only adds to the urgency to
build a permanent and secure storage place."
NEIS REPLY: You imply here that opening the Yucca Mt. facility will
reduce the number of HLRW sites
from the 80+ we currently have down to one. This is flat out WRONG,
and
we have told you and many
reporters this for years. Opening Yucca Mt., or ANY other HLRW
facility
will NOT close down the spent
fuel pools currently at reactor sites; it will merely add one more very
large one.
NRC regulations REQUIRE that all operating reactors maintain an active
spent reactor fuel wet pool onsite, or
else they must shut down! Further, the intense heat and radiation
emitted from fuel freshly removed from the
reactor cores REQUIRE that they remain in wet pools for a MINIMUM of 5
years, sometimes longer, before
they can be considered for even onsite dry-cask storage, let alone
transport across the country. It's simply too
DANGEROUS to do it any other way.
Given that utilities will be seeking an additional 20 year operating
license extension for most reactors, that
means that we will have the need for active, onsite wet pools until
roughly 2053. You are deliberately deceiving
people into believing they will be getting some magical security from
terrorist threats if you persist in
promulgating this known and documented falsehood.
If you really persist in this position, we will have to announce that
the Tribune favors IMMEDIATE shutdown
of reactors once Yucca Mt. is finally opened, since that is the only
possible conclusion one can draw from your
statement. If immediate shutdown is truly your position, please let us
know; we have much to discuss.
It's our job -- yours' and NEIS' -- to try to set the record straight.
They'll
avoid NEIS like the plague; they MAY publish your materials, though. but you
have to write and send them, first. Use the bullet points above as a guide;
then get your op-eds out this week. Get others to send letters, too!
send a short e-mail "letter to the editors" of your local paper; all
other
methods will be too slow at this point.
* Chicago Tribune: ctc-TribLetter at Tribune.com
* Chicago Sun-Times: letters at suntimes.com
* Daily Herald: fencepost at dailyherald.com
3.) "The rest....": Make sure to forward this e-mail message to at least 10
other people. Watch the NEIS website for Yucca updates in the coming weeks;
we'll have more materials available as the issues progress.
While there's no guarantee we will win, I DO guarantee we will lose -- if you
do nothing at this time. Thanks for the help you can lend. A
hundred-thousand
years from now, someone will be very grateful you acted today.
Stay well, do great deeds!!
--Dave Kraft--
--
Dave Kraft
(847)869-7650; -7658 fax
NEIS
P.O. Box 1637
Evanston, IL 60204-1637
neis at forward.net
www.neis.org
__________________________________________________________________
"If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at
the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers..."
--The Little Prince--
"Justice is not a rally, no matter how big it is. Justice is not a wage, no
matter how fair it is.
Justice is a way of looking at life. It is a way of seeing every other
person,
and the rights of that
person, and the work that that person does for you, and that you do for him.
Justice is the way
you fit in, and the way you allow other people to fit in. There is no lone
justice. There is no
solitary justice. There is no work of justice that isolates another person.
Justice is the great
unifying principle of all life. A single life may look for comfort. A single
life may look for love.
But all life, when it is lived together, looks for justice."
--novelist Thomas Cook--
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