Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

November 16, 2016

Trump parade of bad nuclear ideas No. 1 -- Revival of Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump

.
In memory Corbin Harney, Western Shoshone

By Beyond Nuclear
Censored News

The President-Elect Donald J. Trump parade of bad nuclear ideas has already begun. Bloomberg News reports that "Trump advisors eye reviving Nevada nuclear waste dump." 

Over the past 30 years, since the "Screw Nevada bill" of 1987 was initially rammed through Congress, more than a thousand environmental, environmental justice, and public interest groups, representing every state in the union, have successfully staved off the proposal to open a national high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, located on Western Shoshone Indian land.

In 2009-2010, President Obama declared the Yucca dump "unworkable" -- although scientifically unsuitable and environmentally unjust would have been better -- and wisely cancelled the project. U.S. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), long-serving U.S. Senate Democratic Leader, devoted his career to de-funding and blocking the Yucca dump. 

But both Obama and Reid are leaving office in January. The likes of U.S. Reps. Fred Upton (R-MI) and John Shimkus (R-IL), on the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee, have long sought to revive the Yucca dump, on behalf of the lobbyists from the nuclear power industry. Now the President-Elect Trump administration seems amenable to "screwing Nevada," all over again, despite the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future's clear recommendation that radioactive waste dump siting must be "consent-based."

What can you do?

Contact your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative (both those currently serving, and/or taking office in the new Congress in January). Urge them to keep the Yucca nuclear waste dump dead. You can phone your Congress members via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

You can also consider attending the Dec. 2-4 national grassroots radioactive waste strategy summit in Chicago. If you can come, please register ASAP (Beyond Nuclear serves on the planning committee for this event).

You can also attend a Webinar, sponsored by Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), re: Irradiated Nuclear Fuel, to be held on Thursday, November 17, 2016 from 8 to 9:30 PM Eastern time. The presenters will be Dr. Gordon Thompson of Institute for Resource and Security Studies (IRSS), and Donna Gilmore of San Onofre Safety. They will discuss: High Burnup Irradiated Nuclear Fuel; Aging Irradiated Nuclear Fuel; Characteristics and Dangers of Storage Pools and Casks; Robust or Hardened On-Site Storage; and Reprocessing. To register for the Webinar, please go to: 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4295273338593027843 

Please note that this Webinar is being conducted in preparation for the Chicago strategy summit in early December. If you are unable to attend the live Webinar, a recording will be made available in the near future. Recordings of two previous Webinars will also be made available in the near future: the first, held on Nov. 3rd, was conducted by Diane D'Arrigo of NIRS, giving an Introduction to Nuclear Power and the Uranium Fuel Chain; the second, held on Nov. 10th, was conducted by Karen Hadden of SEED Coalition in Texas, Dr. Arjun Makhihani of IEER and Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear, both based in Takoma Park, MD, discussing Centralized "Interim" Storage (de facto permanent parking lot dumps) and Irradiated Nuclear Fuel Transport Risks (Mobile Chernobyl). Watch the Beyond Nuclear weekly email bulletin for an announcement on how to view these recordings, as well as for further updates on the Yucca dump, centralized interim storage (de facto permanent parking lot dumps), Mobile Chernobyl risks, etc.

To learn more about all these issues, see the various sub-tabs under Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste website section.

(Thank you to political cartoonist Tom Engelhardt for the art work above, as featured in the Beyond Nuclear pamphlet by board member Kay Drey entitled "The Lethal Legacy of the Atomic Age.")   

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No More, No More, Don't ya come back No More.
Everyone, Everywhere, there's a different Energy, a Positive Energy.
Love, Respect, Sharing, Honor.