ML20119A477
| ML20119A477 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | HI-STORE |
| Issue date: | 04/27/2020 |
| From: | Public Commenter Public Commenter |
| To: | NRC/NMSS/DREFS |
| NRC/NMSS/DREFS | |
| References | |
| 85FR16150 | |
| Download: ML20119A477 (3) | |
Text
From:
Jonathan Longsworth <jon@longsworth.com>
Sent:
Monday, April 27, 2020 11:30 AM To:
Holtec-CISFEIS Resource
Subject:
[External_Sender] High-Level Radioactive Nuclear Power Waste transport Regarding the proposed Holtec 'Consolidated Interim Storage Facility' draft Environmental Impact Statement [CISF DEIS]:
I join millions of citizens in demanding that expanded public-comment hearings be held in all states and affected districts, wherever feasible, once it becomes safer to do so.
We also demand that for now public comment be kept open indefinitely -- that any countdown clock for an at least 199-day comment period commence ONLY after it becomes adequately safe from uncontrolled COVID-19 transmission to once again hold the above-said in-person public comment meetings. To barrel ahead with a schedule and plans formulated well before our current extraordinary conditions -- and which even then were hasty and insufficient, a forced march to potential catastrophe
-- is tantamount to criminal misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance.
With concentrated radioactive waste being carried along public highways, waterways, and rail lines, not least through populated areas, throughout at-risk American landscape, the grievous risks of this complex transit from far-&-wide to the proposed interim storage facility are further exacerbated by another overwhelming factor: the sheer amount of highly toxic material involved. It will far outstrip the also problematic Nuclear Waste Repository scheme of 1987-2002 at Yucca Mountain. Holtec now proposes to ship and store nearly 250% the previously estimated quantity of High-Level Radioactive Waste: at least 173,600 metric tons [MT], vs. 70,000 MT as were to be dumped on Western Shoshone tribal lands there in Nevada. The problem is further compounded by the fact that this waste depot is so called Interim; i.e., intended as temporary, but almost certainly indefinite storage until permanent disposal is finally determined, with no clear endgame in sight. And being only a stopgap, merely a makeshift expedient, the entire operation would then need to be reversed, further endangering the countryside through which it again passes. Once and done would seem the more appropriate procedure.
Should this Interim process nonetheless proceed, it is only fitting and proper that, particularly along routes designated for transporting this deadliest of waste, NRC must hold perhaps as much as the same 250% as many hearings as those by DOE [U.S. Department of Energy] on the Yucca Mtn.
problem two decades ago. This would also include maintaining a comment period that, once started, will as well last at least as long if not longer than the foregoing episode.
As it stands, the Commission's currently inadequate four month comment period is set to close out July 21, 2020, with just five meetings scheduled -- the latter of these certainly minimally attended, if at all, while lockdown is in place against the spread of another deadly health menace, COVID-19.
Inexcusable as well, none of these meetings were ever set to take place anywhere outside of the host state of New Mexico, only -- and an unwilling host at that. For all these Mobile Chernobyls, Dirty Bombs on Wheels or potential Floating Fukushimas, even those that manage to pass 'incident-free,'
but are still Mobile X-ray Machines That Can't Be Turned Off -- and especially given the accident and attack risks of such routine shipments -- what is vitally needed are significantly greater comment time and numbers of hearings for public input across the whole of the U.S. This must as well include population centers where other citizens will surely wish a voice, even where they may not be immediately or directly affected in the likelihood of a radioactive contamination breach of whatever magnitude -- and by whatever cause -- but which nonetheless poisons their beloved nation wherever it happens.
Given the environmental justice [EJ] burden that high-level radioactive waste shipments would represent -- as attested to on Democracy Now! last September by none other than Mustafa Ali, former head of EJ at US EPAa reality and an institutionalized hubris exemplified and epitomized not least by the expropriation of Native territory for the dump site at Yucca Mtn. -- public hearing meetings must
not be forfeited especially in transport corridor communities nationwide, to such a great extent where the disadvantaged and downtrodden live, including in our state.
On behalf of all citizens, we DEMAND this of the Commission.
This message has been posted as well to all appropriate government and congressional representatives.
Federal Register Notice:
85FR16150 Comment Number:
37 Mail Envelope Properties (DACC4877.99495%jon)
Subject:
[External_Sender] High-Level Radioactive Nuclear Power Waste transport Sent Date:
4/27/2020 11:29:43 AM Received Date:
4/27/2020 11:29:49 AM From:
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