Some in rural Nevada see benefits in nuclear repository plan, WRAL.com MIRANDA WILLSON, Las Vegas Sun 17 May 19, LAS VEGAS— Elected officials in rural Nye County say they support moving forward with a long-studied but mothballed national nuclear waste repository in Nevada, unlike their counterparts in urban Las Vegas, approximately 90 miles away.
But the Las Vegas Sun reports that residents who live close to Yucca Mountain are split on whether storing approximately 70,000 tons of nuclear waste there is a good idea.
Spanning more than 18,000 square miles, Nye County is the largest county by area in Nevada, with a population of 44,200 people.
Some see the proposed repository as a potential bringer of economic development and jobs to a county where nearly 19% of residents live below the poverty line.
Others say the environmental and human health risks of transporting and storing the nation’s most radioactive material are too high, and unjust, considering that Nevada doesn’t produce nuclear energy.
Nevada’s U.S. senators, Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, Gov. Steve Sisolak, Democrats, and most of the state’s congressional representatives and officials in Clark County surrounding Las Vegas share similar concerns.
Nonetheless, Nye County commissioners are urging lawmakers in Congress to support the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, sponsored by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
The bill has a name recalling a measure that Congress passed in 1982 and amended in 1987. It would restart the licensing process for establishing Yucca Mountain as the primary storage site for the country’s spent nuclear fuel.
Progress toward licensing stopped in 2009 under President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump has signaled support for moving forward again.
In a letter to Barrasso and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Delaware, a ranking member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, Nye County commissioners asked lawmakers to allow the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew its review of the Yucca Mountain proposal.
Eight other rural counties in Nevada also support resuming the Yucca Mountain licensing process……..
The county’s National Resources and Federal Facilities chief, Daryl Lacy, said many residents are convinced that nuclear waste isn’t inherently dangerous.
He says Yucca Mountain could bring several thousand highly paid jobs to Nye County, where the former Nevada Test Site, renamed the Nevada National Security Site, remains the largest employer in Nye County.
Lacy said officials support resuming discussions about how waste could be transported and stored safely, as well as financial benefits the county and the state would get in return.
“Many of the people here understand that yes, there’s risks, yes, it’s a nasty material, but it can be handled appropriately. And it’s not necessarily any worse than other things that have been done here in the past,” Lacy said, referring to nuclear detonations from 1951 to 1992……..
Ninety-eight nuclear reactors operating in 30 U.S. states have so far produced approximately 90,000 tons of radioactive waste. Most is stored at reactor sites using dry cask storage, intended to be a temporary solution……
Susan Sorrells, owner and manager of Shoshone Village just over the California state line, says Yucca Mountain could devastate an area that relies on tourism to Death Valley National Park, which draws more than 1 million people a year.
A fourth-generation resident of the town of fewer than 30 people, Sorrells said Yucca Mountain would negatively impact ecotourism that she spearheads. She also worries about impacts on the area water supply, which she says is affected by nuclear testing decades ago.
Patrick Donnelly, Nevada director for the Center for Biological Diversity and a former Shoshone resident, said he believes environmental and safety risks outweigh potential economic benefits.
Joe Kennedy, former Timbisha Shoshone chairman, says nuclear waste could affect the environment and water supply in Indian Village and Furnace Creek, California, close to Death Valley.
Radiation Free Lakeland 12th May 2019Professor Kazuhiko Kobayashi has done ground breaking work with theUniversity of Tokyo on the impact of climate change on rice nutrition. This is important work and it has been widely featured in national and
international media.
Kazuhiko’s real passion however is to warn people
about the worst criminality against humankind: nuclear power and nuclear
weapons.
Kazuhiko organises respite for children and families who have been
impacted by the ongoing Fukushima disaster.
Members of Radiation Free Lakeland met up with Kazuhiko last autumn to show him the Sellafield area and he told us that there is money for climate research but not so much for
research into the impacts of radiation on our food and health. He is a kind
gentle man and he was visibly shocked to see the scale of Sellafield.
Kazuhiko broke down in tears within the shadow of Sellafield, at the
impacts the nuclear industry is having on our children’s health. His
passionate opposition to nuclear power and weapons, his work for change and
to help those impacted, is an inspiration.
Sisolak reiterates Nevada opposition to Yucca nuclear storage, By Gary Martin/Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 30, 2019 WASHINGTON— Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak sent a letter Tuesday underscoring the state’s opposition to nuclear waste storage to the chairman and ranking member of a Senate panel in advance of a hearing on reviving the licensing process needed to open Yucca Mountain.
“My position, and that of the state of Nevada, remains identical to the position of Nevada’s past five governors,” Sisolak, a Democrat, wrote. “The state of Nevada opposes the project based on scientific, technical and legal merits.”
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, has introduced a bill that would revive licensing for the Yucca Mountain site, designated by Congress in 1987 as the location for permanent storage of nuclear waste produced by power plants.
Organisation that has called for nuclear weapons to be banned for six decades holds public meeting in Burnley, 23 Apr 19, https://www.burnleyexpress.net/news/organisation-that-has-called-for-nuclear-weapons-to-be-banned-for-six-decades-holds-public-meeting-in-burnley-1-9730392An organisation that has existed for 62 years and campaigns to ban nuclear weapons held a public meeting in Burnley.And the strong message that came forward from the meeting of the East Lancashire branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was that the public should be made more aware of the humanitarian consequences of a deliberate or accidental detonation of nuclear weapons as well as the dangers that the population of UK are exposed to by the government persisting in maintaining and developing them.
Under the theme Britain Can Say NO to Nukes the meeting was held in the Central Methodist Church Hall with main guest speaker Rebecca Johnson, who is CND vice president and co chairman of International Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons which, in 2017 won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Rebecca took the Nobel medal, affectionately known as ‘Alfred’ along to the meeting for people to have the opportunity to see it.
Between her international anti-nuclear commitments , Rebecca is currently acting as a legal observer in the XR demonstrations in London where over two hundred people have been arrested for committing acts of non-violent direct action.
Rebecca showed a short film about the horrific humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons before going on to describe how, over a number of years, the nations of the world that do not have nuclear weapons have come together to negotiate the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
It was adopted by the United Nations in July 2017 by 122 nations of the UN General Assembly.
Currently 70 nations have signed the Treaty and 22 have ratified it. Once 50 countries have ratified it, then it will become part of International law, like the laws against other WMD’s -chemical weapons, cluster bombs and landmines. It is expected that this could happen sometime next year.
In Ratnagiri’s Jaitapur, Fishermen Vehemently Oppose Nuclear Plant. The Wire, 22 Apr 19
In Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri, the Sadak se Sansad team finds out why farmers are opposing the world’s largest nuclear power plant. In this special story from the Ratnagiri Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, we speak to fishermen who have been protesting against the Jaitapur nuclear power project for over a decade. They say that the project will adversely affect their ecology and threaten their livelihoods. If completed, the plant will be the largest nuclear power generating station in the world. https://thewire.in/video/watch-in-ratnagiris-jaitapur-fishermen-vehemently-oppose-nuclear-plant
East Anglian Daily Times 23rd April 2019 Is tide turning against Sizewell C? Opponents are feeling encouraged. Campaigners claim the proposals for a new nuclear power station on the
Suffolk coast have been “exposed as entirely inadequate” – and believe it cannot be built.
Together Against Sizewell C (TASC) feel thetide is turning against the proposals for two new nuclear reactors and claim people will decide the evidence is “overwhelming and terminal”.
EDF Energy believes nuclear power has a “strong future”, work is under
way on its Hinkley Point C new build and plans for the Suffolk project are
progressing well.
However, TASC chairman Pete Wilkinson says the most
recent plans shown in the company’s stage three consultation for Sizewell C
have been “exposed as entirely inadequate”. He said: “Since the
delivery of a 1,500-signature petition to the Leader of Suffolk County
Council, we have seen a surge in support for our position of outright
opposition to Sizewell, local artists and actors voicing their concerns and
the RSPB warning that the most important bird reserve in the country,
Minsmere, is potentially threatened by the Sizewell development.
“Our petitions are attracting more and more signatures and we are convinced that
the hurdles to building such a complicated and dangerous plant in such a
confined and remote area will be recognised as overwhelming and terminal.
“With recent increased media interest in the issue, people are waking up
to the sheer scale of the environmental and infrastructure changes the
plant will require and they are becoming more and more vocal in opposition.
It is very encouraging.” TASC has voiced concerns over the suitability of
the Sizewell site, claiming it is too small for the proposed development,
potential loss of SSSI, visual intrusion, noise and light pollution and the
negative impact it will have on the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB and
Heritage Coast.
TASC secretary Joan Girling said: “Our detailed report
clearly demonstrates three things: we require much more information from
EDF before we can fully appreciate the impact of their plans; even on the
information available, it is clear that the dis-benefits associated with
Sizewell C far outweigh the putative benefits, and EDF must plan for a
fourth round of consultation.”
NFLA 18th April 2019 The Nuclear Free Local Authorities (NFLA) notes that over 70 Welsh unitary, county, city, town and community councils have passed resolutions formally opposing taking any interest in hosting a deep underground radioactive waste repository.
The figure was noted at a joint meeting in Menai Bridge organised by the NFLA Welsh Forum in conjunction with the groups PAWB, CADNO and CND Cymru. At a presentation provided by the NFLA Secretary, he noted that there had been real anger and frustration raised across Welsh and Northern Irish Councils in particular to the request made by the UK
Government for considering hosting a large deep underground repository to store over 60 years of higher activity radioactive waste, as well as possibly additional waste should new nuclear power stations ever be built.
Even in England, a number of nuclear site Councils have indicated their public opposition to hosting a repository. NFLA have noted some of these issues in its response to RWM regarding its consultation on how any proposed sites will be evaluated.
AARP foreshadows opposition to Ohio nuclear subsidies, Energy News Network BY John Funk 17 Apr 19
The group hasn’t taken a formal position on a bill introduced Friday, but recently told lawmakers it would oppose “any legislation” to prop up nuclear plants
AARP Ohio informed top Republican lawmakers before they introduced a bill subsidizing old nuclear and certain coal power plants that the organization would aggressively fight to defeat such legislation.
In a letter sent to House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, a day before he unveiled House Bill 6 last week, AARP state director Barbara Sykes wrote that AARP would strongly oppose “any legislation” imposing a customer surcharge to subsidize the nuclear plants.
“AARP Ohio, on behalf of its 1.5 million members and families, strongly opposes any surcharge or tax on utility customers in our state that would serve to subsidize the for-profit nuclear power industry,” she wrote………
GOP leaders have said the legislation would raise about $300 million per year from customers. While they maintain customer bills would initially be lower, clean energy advocates say the proposal will cost ratepayers more in the long run by defunding energy efficiency and clean energy measures.
An initial hearing on the legislation was held Tuesday before the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Another round of hearings begin Wednesday before the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Generation.
Tuesday’s hearing began a day after lawyers for FirstEnergy Solutions asked a federal bankruptcy court in Akron for permission for an additional 90 days to file a plan of reorganization. The company sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Mar. 31. The court rejected the company’s first plan because it included reference to a deal absolving parent company FirstEnergy from any future liabilities for environmental problems caused by its power plants.https://energynews.us/2019/04/16/midwest/aarp-foreshadows-opposition-to-ohio-nuclear-subsidies/
Kings Bay Plowshares: Peace Activists Face 25 Years for Action at U.S. Nuclear Submarine Base
Kings Bay Plowshares: Peace Activists Face 25 Years for Action at U.S. Nuclear Submarine Base Democracy Now 8 Apr 19, A group of peace activists have been jailed for over a year before trial for entering the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia last April to protest U.S. nuclear weapons. The action took place on April 4, 2018—the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination. Armed with hammers, crime scene tape and baby bottles containing their own blood, seven anti-nuclear activists secretly entered Kings Bay—one of the largest nuclear submarine bases in the world—under the cover of night.
Their goal was to symbolically disarm the six nuclear ballistic missile submarines kept there. Each submarine carries 20 Trident thermonuclear weapons. One year after this historic action, three of the Plowshares activists remain jailed in Georgia. The other four are out on $50,000 bond with electronic ankle monitors. All seven face up to 25 years in prison for their actions. On Thursday, global leaders, activists and scholars, including Nobel Peace Prize-winning South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, released a petition addressed to U.S. Attorney General William Barr demanding all charges against the Kings Bay 7 be dropped immediately. Democracy Now! recently spoke with the four Plowshares activists who are out on bond: Martha Hennessy, Carmen Trotta, Patrick O’Neill and Clare Grady………..https://www.democracynow.org/2019/4/8/kings_bay_plowshares_peace_activists_face
Nuclear power has never lived up to the promise of cheap energy for all, but the costs have included displacement and sickness to nearby communities, contamination of land and water resources, and a build up of 70 years worth of nuclear waste.
In the UK, the costs of nuclear developments have been borne by the taxpayer. Under the ‘Contracts for Difference’ scheme, bills for electricity from the new plant at Hinkley C will be twice what we currently pay.
This does not cover the costs of accidents, which are underwritten by the Government. Nuclear plants typically run overtime and over-budget.
Nuclear waste
The Government’s consultation about burying nuclear waste is about to end, kicking off a five-year search for a willing host community with ‘suitable’ ground conditions.
We are presented with two options: leave the waste in crumbling storage facilities like Sellafield; or bury it and let it contaminate the environment.
In Scotland, new surface-level management facilities are being built but in England this is deemed too expensive. It is clear that we need a solution to managing the waste before we create more of it.
Springfields is where nuclear fuel is produced for both civil and military use, and waste processed from both the UK and abroad.
‘Surround Springfields’ on 27 April is an opportunity to follow the route of radioactive waste and to understand how this issue affects everyone, everywhere.
Creative action
We will even be dressing as barrels of waste in an attempt to break a world record for surrounding a nuclear site.
We will also be having a live conversation with indigenous people in other countries via a webinar about the impacts of uranium mining and nuclear waste. You can join this remotely if you cannot get there – check our Facebook page for details.
Do we choose a long term, socially responsible and ethical energy supply, with a moral commitment to the wellbeing of future generations?
We need to come together and make the Government approach these challenges with vision and creativity, not with the poverty of ambition, opacity and lack of foresight that characterises the nuclear solution.
Take part
Surround Springfields will take place on Saturday 27 April. For more information, contact the organisers.
This Author
Chris Bluemel is a music teacher and campaigner and part of the Stop New Nuclear network. He has been involved in a wide range of campaigning from standing in elections as a Green Party candidate to direct action against road-building, fracking, the DSEI arms fair, and Trident. He is also part of the radical protest-folk band Seize The Day.
Nuclear war and a new arms race , Guardian, Bruce Kent, Vice-president, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, 5 Apr 19
Dr Lesley Morrison and fellow health professionals fear Donald Trump and think the UK should be at the forefront of international nuclear disarmament. Bruce Kent and Judy Turner on the service at Westminster Abbey to mark 50 years of submarine-based nuclear weapons
“…….. The recent decision of the US and then Russia to suspend compliance with the intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty threatens the start of a new arms race. We are all concerned about Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic behaviour and unpredictable methods of conducting international diplomacy; our security is at risk, and the fact that he has control over the US nuclear arsenal and its potential deployment is frightening.
We write as members of Medact, an organisation of health professionals working to make the world a safer place by drawing attention to the links between nuclear disarmament, the environment and social justice.
Medact is the British affiliate of IPPNW, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, set up in 1980 by two eminent cardiologists, one American and one Soviet, and both doctors to their heads of state. Last week we met with the director of programmes for IPPNW and heard first-hand just how worried people in the US are about the potential use – deliberate or inadvertent – of nuclear weapons.
The BMA produced a report in 1983 entitled The Medical Effects of Nuclear War, describing the humanitarian catastrophe that would result. The World Medical Association and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have echoed these sentiments.
It is worth noting that 122 nations voted in favour of the 2017 UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. The UK was not among them. Having heard from our American colleagues just how dangerous the current situation is, we urge people to encourage their political representatives to push for the UK to engage with the treaty and be at the forefront of international nuclear disarmament.
Dr Lesley MorrisonGP Dr Duncan McIntyreRetired physician Dr Michael OrgelRetired clinician Dr Judith McDonaldGP Dr Danuta OrlowskaClinical psychologist Dr Georgina RaceJunior doctor Dr Margaret CraigGP Dr Cath DyerRetired GP Dr Richard DyerRetired GP Dr Guy JohnsonGP
• May I urge the dean of Westminster Abbey to cancel the ceremony planned for 3 May. It is to be held in thanksgiving for 50 years of continuous at-sea (nuclear weapon) deterrence. That means 50 years of being ready and wiling to commit mass murder. Is this something to thank God for?
Nuclear weapons are supposedly there to ensure our security. They actually have precisely the opposite effect, and are, of course, a standing invitation to other countries to copy our example. As Robert McNamara, a former US defence secretary, said: “It was luck that prevented nuclear war.”
We are rarely told about the many accidents and miscalculations that have taken us, too often, to the brink of disaster. Perhaps it would be better to hold a day of prayer for the success of the current UN nuclear weapon abolition treaty, which this country has yet to support. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/05/nuclear-war-and-a-new-arms-race
BANNG 2nd April 2019 BANNG’s primary purpose is to oppose the development of new nuclear power
at Bradwell in Essex. We also have an interest in generic and specific
processes and proposals for new nuclear developments which may have a
bearing on the Bradwell development.
Our response to the Sizewell application reflects a number of common concerns. One, is that Sizewell and
Bradwell are projects being developed by a partnership between EDF and CGN.
Although Sizewell is based on the UK EPR while Bradwell is intended for the
UK HPR1000, both comprise reactors, waste stores and other buildings which
must be accommodated on coastal sites.
A second feature is that the sites
are hemmed in by areas of environmental significance with many
designations, the most notable being the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB and
Minsmere RSPB reserve in Suffolk and the Marine Conservation Zone in Essex.
Thirdly, both are close to substantial populations with Leiston (Suffolk)
and West Mersea (Essex) within two to three miles from the sites.
Fourth,
both sites are vulnerable to coastal processes, in the case of Sizewell,
coastal erosion and at Bradwell flooding and storm surges, problems which
will only get worse as climate change wreaks havoc on the fragile and
low-lying east coast while the operation and decommissioning of the plants
continues into the next century and beyond. And, fifth, as the UK’s
nuclear strategy collapses, Sizewell and Bradwell are the two remaining
sites which puts enormous pressure on government, developers, regulators
and the IPC to ensure the delivery of the two new nuclear power stations.
Indeed, CGN has responded to the opportunity presented by stating that,
‘In simple terms, we have ramped up. We are bringing forward [the
Bradwell project]’1.
Cumbria Trust 2nd April 2019 At the Silloth Town Council meeting held on 11 March 2019 it was
“RESOLVED that a letter be sent to say that Silloth Town Council will not
be volunteering to be a site for a GDF and that we don’t want it in our
area” which was in response to The Radioactive Waste Management –
Consultation on how they will evaluate potential sites for a GDF in the
future in England and Wales.
** Two U.S. Veterans for Peace released after 12 days in Irish prison for peace action at Shannon Airport
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Two members of U.S. Veterans For Peace – Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers – were arrested on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day after cutting the fence and entering the airfield at Shannon Airport in Ireland to inspect and investigate a plane on contract to the U.S. military. They carried a large banner that said “U.S. Veterans Say: Respect Irish Neutrality – U.S. War Machine Out of Shannon Airport”. The men were refused bail by Ennis District Court on March 18 and jailed at the Limerick Prison, charged with trespass and causing criminal damage. At a preliminary hearing on March 28, the men were granted bail and released on March 29 pending trial. Their passports were taken and they were ordered to stay away from airports. They may not be able to leave Ireland before their trial. Shannon Airport is used for refueling troop and equipment transport planes bound for Middle East wars.
Members of European Parliament among 16 arrested at Belgian air base where U.S. nuclear weapons are stored
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Three Green Party politicians from Luxembourg, England and France were arrested with four Agir pour la Paix activists on February 20 after climbing a fence to enter a military base in Belgium where U.S. nuclear weapons are stored. After entering the Kleine Brogel base, they blocked the runway used by F-16 fighter jets. The Members of European Parliament – Molly Scott Cato, Tilly Metz and Michele Rivasi – held a banner that read, “Europe Free of Nuclear Weapons”. The group was soon detained and taken into custody. Nine supporters standing outside the base were also arrested, and authorities erased photos and videos from their cameras and phones.
Eleven nuclear resisters arrested during blockade of Lockheed Martin, California
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Eleven nuclear resisters with the Pacific Life Community were arrested on March 18 during a blockade of the main gate of Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California. The group held a banner across the road reading, “Lockheed Weapons Terrorize the World”. They carried with them copies of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to inform Lockheed workers and management that when the treaty is ratified, building nuclear weapons and their delivery systems will be in violation of international humanitarian law.
Eight arrested during St. Patrick’s Day blockade of Des Moines drone command center
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Veterans for Peace and Catholic Workers from across the Midwest converged on the Iowa Air National Guard Drone Command Center in Des Moines on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. After a rally, protesters walked onto the base. Eight activists blocked the main entrance gate, holding a banner with a message from St. Patrick: “In Christ There is No Killing”. The blockaders were arrested and taken to the Polk County Jail. One of them bailed out, and the other seven spent the night in jail before pleading guilty on Monday morning. They were fined $100-$1000 and then set free.
Leader Live 22nd March 2019 , HOLYWELL councillors were quick to back a bid to reject nuclear waste being dumped in the town. Earlier this year, North Wales residents were consulted in the search for a site to dump 60 years’ worth of the UK’s most dangerous radioactive waste.
At their monthly meeting, town council members were quick to support the motion that Holywell would not become the host of a nuclear waste dump. Plaid Cymru’s Jill Evans MEP sent the town council an email on the subject that was read out at the meeting. “We are writing to you to urge your council to pass a motion stating that your community
will not volunteer to host an underground waste dump.
CND Cymru will keep a record of every community, town and county council that passes such a motion, and submit a list to the government’s consultation as part of our submission to the consultation.” From the end of March, this list of
councils who support this motion will be available on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s website
nuclear-news 