NUCLEAR WASTE LEGISLATION SCHEDULED FOR COMMITTEE VOTE MARCH 12;
THEN MAY BE HEADED TO SENATE FLOOR
Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, will bring up his Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, S.104, for a vote of the commitee on Wednesday. Murkowski claims the bill will be voted on by the full Senate during the week of March 17, and Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) has confirmed that he may schedule the bill for action before the Senate's March 22 -April 6 recess.
The bill would force the opening of an above-ground "interim"
storage dump for highly irradiated nuclear fuel, roll back environmental
standards for the proposed underground waste repository, transfer
liability for hazardous waste from the nuclear industry to the taxpayers,
and push citizens, state and local governments and the Environmental
Protection Agency out of the decisionmaking process.
Murkowski introduced S. 104 on January 21 of this year. The bill
is identical to the amended version of last year's S. 1936, which was
passed by the Senate in a 63-37 vote. The bill stalled because of
President Clinton's opposition, and the administration has renewed its
veto promise. Overriding a presidential veto requires the votes of
two-thirds of all senators present and voting. Therefore, if all senators
vote, 34 are needed to sustain a veto.
S. 104 severely weakens environmental standards for nuclear waste
disposal by carving loopholes in the National Environmental Policy Act,
preempting other environmental laws, eliminating licensing standards for a
permanent repository, and overburdening the Environmental Protection
Agency.
While the nuclear industry claims that centralized storage reduces
the number of high-level waste sites from 110 to one, every operating
reactor will remain a high-level waste site so long as it continues to
splits atoms.
Please call, email, and/or fax your senators and urge them to oppose
S.104.
The Capitol Switchboard number is (202)224-3121. Direct line and fax
numbers as well as E-mail addresses for Senators can be found on Critical
Mass' voting index (http://www.citizen.org/CMEP).
S. 104 is opposed by scores of national and grassroots environmental organizations, including Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Greenpeace, Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters, U.S. PIRG, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Military Production Network and Nuclear Waste Citizens Coalition.
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.
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.
For more information, contact Auke Piersma at Public Citizen at
(202)546-4996; E-mail: apiersma@citizen.org.
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