From ctm_logan at yahoo.com Fri Oct 19 18:35:29 2018 From: ctm_logan at yahoo.com (Christopher L) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2018 23:35:29 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Permatopia] Extension for comment on Texas nuke dump References: <278237987.437399.1539992130097.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <278237987.437399.1539992130097@mail.yahoo.com> Hi folks! Here's hoping you don't consider this an abuse of your inbox.? It's about a yuckie topic that's not a lot of fun to research and write about.? Yet public comment has been called for, and now extended till November 19. You may know me as a cynic on the "democratic process".?? True, I don't usually sign petitions or write my congressman, having reaped the wind on those techniques over many years.? But the opportunity to get into the brain of people actually making critical decisions - perhaps one of the most critical decisions that the government will make in this era - is far too compelling, and I have sent a letter to the NRC, which you will see attached. Believe it or not, there is a plan, apparently in earnest, to move all the high-level nuclear waste (spent fuel rods, inimical to human Life for hundreds of thousands of years) to "interim storage" facilities in New Mexico and Texas.? The New Mexico comment period is over.? The dump proposed for Andrews County, Texas, is open for comment for another month. The plan involves moving 80,000 metric tons of spent fuel rods, by truck, train and ship, across every state in the Union, to these facilities, which are to be run by ... wait for it ... ... private enterprise.? To wit, the company Orano, which has dumped tons of nuclear materials into the waters in and around France, is partnering with something called Waste Control Specialists, "founded in Dallas, Texas, in 1989 as a landfill operator, and awarded a unique license for disposal of low level radioactive waste in 2009."? (The short Wikipedia about WCS can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Control_Specialists)? Now, that low-level dump is slated to become "interim storage" for high-level nuclear waste, a much more serious commodity, of which 40,000 metric tons are to be deposited in Andrews County. You've seen jack-knifed trucks on highways, their contents spilling onto the road.? You've seen photos of many derailed trains, crashed airplanes and ships run aground.? The vast amount of material to be transported almost guarantees a major accident at some point in transportation to Texas.? But the supposed plan is to transport all this highly poisonous, radioactive waste a second time, to a "permanent" storage facility. Except that there is no permanent facility.? Yucca Mountain was shown to be inadequate, and plans to store the nation's high-level nuke waste there foundered.? There is no alternate plan.? The whole program of transporting and guarding this waste is very expensive, and years later it's unlikely to be considered tenable.? So the waste would almost certainly repose in Texas and New Mexico ... "forever". Except that "forever" involves a couple of thousand centuries, whereas "dry casking" offers, at best two centuries of sequestration.? After that, the cement and steel begin to corrode, and any earthquakes, floods, storms, human activity - or just the wind blowing by - will carry it into the world, much as the detritus of Fukushima wafted over the Pacific Ocean, and Chernobyl covered Europe in radioactive particles. Although the plan to move this waste around is unnecessary from a storage perspective (it's as safe where it is, as in Texas) and dangerous to attempt, it does have a reason, and that is that the NRC is mandated to take the waste from power companies to a permanent storage site, but is unable to do so.? Lawsuits are mounting from power companies now charged with guarding the waste, even after the stream of profit they made on it has dried up.? Allowing the NRC this quick fix would make nuclear power much more attractive, financially.? Right now the "nuclear renaissance" is fizzling.? But this "interim storage" lets those who make the waste off the hook, and could breathe new vigor into a horrific industry. I'm beating this issue pretty hard.? We all have important issues, and maybe this isn't yours.? But if you do care about what happens to the nuke waste, during your lifetime and far beyond, I urge you to write you own letter to May Ma and the NRC, WCS_CISF_EIS at nrc.gov in reference to Docket ID NRC-2016-0231 by November 19. ? Here is the announcement of extension to the comments period: https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2018/18-050.pdf Here is some information, perhaps useful to compose your letter - or to send their form letter if you're pressed for time. http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=26513 I thank you.? My planet thanks you. Blessings!c. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Open Letter to May Ma & NRC.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 1941678 bytes Desc: not available URL: