Summer Quarterly 2018
The Trump Administration and some in Congress have moved to revive the Yucca Mountain waste repository in Nevada for up to 80,000 tons of waste reactor fuel, and to move ahead with the lesser known “Centralized Interim Storage” (CIS) proposals for the same waste. Two potential CIS sites are currently seeking licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, even prior to Congressional approval: Holtec International/Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance’s facility in New Mexico, for 173,600 metric tons; and Waste Control Specialists’ expansion of their Texas facility to allow storage of 40,000 metric tons. In a strong show of resistance, 233 citizens have publicly opposed Holtec’s proposal at six public hearings. If licensing of Yucca Mountain or a CIS facility were approved, thousands of high-risk shipments of the waste, on highways, railroads and barges, would endanger a third of the US population that lives along transport routes that run through 44 states. In May, the House voted 340-72 to adopt H.R. 3053 which would resume the Yucca Mountain licensing process and authorize CIS. Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada slammed the bill which critics have labeled “Screw Nevada Act,” and “Mobile Chernobyl.” Sen. Masto said a senate version of the bill is “dead on arrival” and called the $15 billion already spent on the Yucca project “a massive waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Submit comments regarding the environmental scoping of the Holtec CIS facility. Click here for sample comments from Beyond Nuclear. See updates from Halt Holtec who organized the opposition to the Holtec CIS proposal at hearings.
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