Nukewatch Winter Quarterly 2019-2020
The US House Energy & Commerce Committee passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019—H.R. 2699—by a voice vote Nov. 20. This dangerously bad high-level radioactive waste bill is among the most controversial in Congress. H.R. 2699 would allow for the opening of one or more waste dumps in the US Southwest—so-called Consolidated Interim Storage Facilities (CISFs)—now targeted for New Mexico and Texas (by Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance at New Mexico, and by Interim Storage Partners/Waste Control Specialists in Texas). The bill also reopens plans for permanent abandonment of the waste in Yucca Mountain, Nevada—on Western Shoshone Indian land—a scientifically unsuitable site that was eliminated in 2010. If any of these dumps opens, large-scale shipments of high-risk irradiated waste reactor fuel would travel by road, rail, and/or waterway through most states, past millions of homes. The bill now moves closer to a House floor vote. What can you do? Please contact your US Rep’s via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to oppose H.R. 2699, and to oppose funding for both the Yucca dump and any CISF. Urge them to instead support good bills like the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act (S. 649/H.R. 1544), and the STRANDED Act (S. 1985). —Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear
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