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Many organizations are working together to halt Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing of  two applications. The proposals would result in deadly radioactive waste could travelling through major cities nationwide, headed to West Texas and New Mexico. The Consolidated Interim Storage proposal of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) seeks above ground storage of 40,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste in Andrews, Texas. Holtec proposes a similar high-level radioactive waste storage project for 173,600 tons of spent nuclear fuel for a site between Hobbs and Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Thursday, Sept. 17^th at 7 PM Central Time.  The link is https://tinyurl.com/NoNuclearWaste.

People will be contacting the NRC and Congressmembers.

Comment periods for the Draft Environmental Impact Statements end September 22 for Holtec and November 3 for WCS.

Template letters are online at www.NoNuclearWaste.org.

The NRC will host online public webinar/ meetings for the WCS nuclear waste dump proposal on Oct. 1, 6, 8 and 15.

https://adamswebsearch2.nrc.gov/webSearch2/view?AccessionNumber=ML20260H210

The Draft Environmental Impact Statements for both projects minimize the significant health and safety risks of transporting nuclear waste across the country and storing it for decades at sites that have no way to repackage cracked or corroded waste containers.

The NRC shouldn’t even be considering the license applications at this time because Consolidated Interim Storage is illegal under current federal law.

Under these proposals over 10,000 shipments of deadly radioactive waste would be transported across the country, in a process that would take up to 40 years. Each radioactive waste rail car would carry as much plutonium as was in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The capacity of these sites would allow for more than all the nuclear reactor waste that has been produced in the entire country, plus all that will likely be produced in the future, and it would require over 20 years to get it all here.

This waste is so deadly that it must remain isolated from living things for literally a million years. Transporting it to Texas and New Mexico would not get it into a permanent repository. It would needlessly put our children and future generations at risk from transport accidents and potential contamination. If these projects go forward, people along rail routes in Texas and nationwide would be put at risk. Exposure to radioactivity can cause cancers, genetic damage and birth defects. Exposure to unshielded spent nuclear fuel is lethal.  Interim Storage Partners (ISP) is the name of the joint venture between WCS and their partner, Orano.

The full-length Draft Environmental Impact Statement can be found here.
A 20-page overview is also available here.

 HOW TO COMMENT:

The comment deadline on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Texas’ proposed radioactive waste dump is Nov. 3, 2020.

Email comments on the WCS Draft Environmental Impact Statement to WCS_CISF_EIS@nrc.gov. Include Reference Docket ID NRC-2016-0231 in your message.

You can also send messages to this address at www.NoNuclearWaste.org . The template letters there can be edited and personalized.

Federal Register posting: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/05/08/2020-09795/interim-storage-partners-consolidated-interim-storage-facility-project