Tell Congress to Oppose Dangerous Nuclear Waste Bill

Vote NO on H.R. 3053

On behalf of our members and friends, we urge you to oppose H. R. 3053, the “Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017” (115th Congress, 1st Session). This bill will put our nation’s nuclear waste storage policy on the wrong track yet again. It ignores environmental concerns, states’ rights and consent to host the waste in the first instance, and attempts to truncate public review in order to force a “solution” – either Yucca Mountain or new consolidated interim storage sites – that have both proven to be unworkable. Rather than blindly charge forward at the cost of public safety and public resources, we urge Congress to reject this bill and start the important and necessary work on a comprehensive set of hearings to commence building a publicly accepted, consent based repository program. While it’s tempting to want to get High Level Nuclear Waste out of our reactor communities as soon as possible, prematurely sending it to flawed or unnecessary facilities like these is both dangerous and uneconomic; and increases the risks from transportation accidents in communities that have nothing to do with nuclear power and waste currently, while senselessly contaminating additional new sites around the nation that will ultimately have to be cleaned up. It also relieves congressional districts who can rid themselves of their waste from serious future obligations to site and fund the much needed permanent repository. This is simply dumb energy policy, designed to “unconstipate” the dying nuclear power industry at ratepayer and taxpayer expense. Each shipment represents a potential Mobile Chernobyl, Floating Fukushima, or Dirty Bomb on Wheels risk, whether due to severe accident or intentional attack. Even “routine” or “incident-free” shipments have been called “Mobile X-ray machines that can’t be turned off,” given the hazardous gamma radiation they would emit, and expose persons to, who get too close (as by living along the shipping route, getting stuck next to a shipment in traffic, etc.). Any "interim storage sites" could quickly become de facto permanent dumps, with changing administrations and growing budget constraints. Spent nuclear fuel should be safely stored as close to the site of origin as possible, in the most robust storage systems, and our elected officials should continue to push for a permanent geologic repository. Don't let the industry and the government kick this radioactive can even further down the road.