Updating the March Sierra Activist...
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act, S. 104, was approved by a vote of 15-5
in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
With a vote possible next week (but more likely during the week
of April), phone calls and faxes are needed to Senators Lautenberg &
Torricelli opposing this legislation.
Some talking points on S. 104 follow.
Further information about the bill is available on the Critical Mass Web Page in the "Fact Sheets" section under Radioactive Waste Policy:
http://www.citizen.org/CMEP/radwastefactsheets.html
S. 104 would:
- Mandate the transportation of radioactive waste through communities
across the country
- Establish a repository radiation exposure standard that allows members
of the public to receive radiation doses four times that allowed by
current regulations for radioactive waste storage facilities. The
standard set by S. 104 poses a lifetime risk of one cancer death for every
286 exposed individuals
- Overburden the Environmental Protection Agency to prevent it from issuing standards for a repository
- Transfer title and liability for high-level waste to the taxpayer before a repository opens
- Eliminate repository site suitability standards
- Carve loopholes in the National Environmental Policy Act
- Preempt local and state laws
- Preempt or curtail all federal and state environmental laws
- Order the DOE to begin interim storage construction without NRC approval
- Curtail public participation
* Opening a so-called interim nuclear waste dump in Nevada would mandate
the largest nuclear waste transportation enterprise in history. Over 95
percent of the radioactivity in the nation's nuclear waste would hit the
roads and rails of 43 states, exposing millions to unwarranted risk.
Safety standards for the transportation casks are inadequate and do not
require compliance testing of full-scale models.
* If citizens are to accept the risks of transportation, there must be
some substantive rationale for moving high-level nuclear waste.
Currently, no such reason exists.
* Taxpayers should not have to assume liability for irradiated fuel in the
absence of a long-term plan for the nuclear waste's ultimate disposition.
Until such a plan is in place, title and liability should remain in the
hands of those who chose to generate the materials.
* Shipping waste to the seismically active Nevada Test Site is premature.
Studies to determine whether nearby Yucca Mountain is suitable for a
repository are incomplete. If the site proves unsuitable, waste shipped
all the way to Nevada may have to be shipped again.
___________________________________________________________________________
Call Congress Toll Free: 800-972-3524
Torricelli...
Fax: 202-224-8567
E-Mail: torricel@torricelli.com
Lautenberg...
Fax: 202-224-9797
E-Mail: frank_lautenberg@lautenberg.senate.gov
The Honorable_____________
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510