Tell the NRC: Radioactive Waste Matters!

An advocacy alert from Physicians for Social Responsibility:

Tell the NRC: Radioactive Waste Matters!

As it prepares to license a new generation of nuclear plants, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to “reaffirm” that after five decades of unsuccessful efforts by the US government to develop a safe permanent repository for radioactive waste, the Commission still has “confidence” that it is technically feasible to find such a place. To hedge its bet, the NRC has extended the time period in which it thinks that this can be accomplished to within 50-60 years beyond the operating lifetime of a reactor, from its original prediction of 30 years. The NRC is downplaying the severity of problems that come with the siting and licensing of a repository and incorrectly concludes that political resistance rather than legitimate technical problems is the reason that no country in the world has a repository.

At the same time, the NRC is proposing to continue to allow radioactive waste to accumulate at reactor sites in high-density storage pools. While conceding the vulnerability of these pools to catastrophic fires caused by accidents or attacks, the NRC refuses to require licensees to use on-site dry storage, which would virtually eliminate the risk. Instead, the NRC claims it has reduced the risk to an acceptable level by imposing secret security measures on pool storage.

TELL THE NRC that it must conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement analysis, as required by the law.

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