NUCLEAR WASTE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YUCCA-NEVADA:GOOD ENOUGH FOR WHO? ONTARIO…

this document is given to North American politicians, energy stakeholders and global grassroots networks


Reid Celebrates Obama’s Yucca Mountain Decision
By Paul Bedard
Posted February 26, 2009

 http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/washington-whispers/2009/02/26/reid-celebrates-obamas-yucca-mountain-decision.html

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reports in a message to Nevadans that President Obama has ended the government’s bid to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain and that instead, Obama will try to come up with another plan. On his Senate website, Reid reports:

USN.load(’Loomia’);

Dear Fellow Nevadan-

Today was an extremely important day in our fight against the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. In his budget request for 2010, President Obama will announce plans to devise a new strategy to find another solution to deal with the nation‘s nuclear waste that does not include storing it in Nevada .

As Nevadans know, I have been successfully fighting the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump since I began my career in the Senate. I have had tremendous help from our state‘s leaders and thousands of Nevadans along the way. President Obama joined the fight against the nuclear waste dump in his Presidential campaign, and I am proud that now he will deliver on his promise.

President Obama has made a critical first step towards fulfilling his promise to end the Yucca Mountain project, and I could not be happier for the people of Nevada. Make no mistake: this represents a significant and lasting victory in our battle to protect Nevada from becoming the country‘s toxic wasteland. I have worked for over two decades with help from our state‘s leaders and thousands of Nevadans to stop Yucca Mountain. President Obama recognizes that the proposed dump threatens the health and safety of Nevadans and millions of Americans, and his commitment to stop this terrible project could not be more clear.

HARRY REID
United States Senator for Nevada
Message from Ontario:

The Ontario Liberal McGuinty government, the Toronto Star newspaper, and Ontario Power Generation say nuclear power is CLEAN, GREEN AND SAFE. OPG says they are great at and very proud of their nuclear waste management. We say President Obama bring it on. We’ll take all of your lethal nuclear waste, and will split it with the Alberta Tar Sands.

And upstream from his hometown and Canada’s capital, Ottawa, Ontario Premier McGuinty is promoting uranium mining and says it’s safe for the whole Ottawa/Gatineau watershed.

So hey, New York State, Ottawa-Gatineau is ready to take all your nuclear waste.

As Ontario’s provincial Tourism song says: “Good things groooow in On-tarr-io!
“[W]e are good at [nuclear waste management] and very proud of,” quips Jim Hankinson, CEO Ontario Power Generation.
Jim is for building new and refurbishing old nuclear reactors in Ontario, saying that “OPG will have one of the cleanest generating portfolios in North America.”

 http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/vigilinfo-picket-against-nuclear-power-and-call-for-resignations-of-public-energy-ceos-in-ontario/

Reader Comments( to “Harry Reid” article)

NUCLEAR WASTE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR NAVADA:GOOD ENOUGH FOR WHO?

Wonderful! But what about all this extreme toxic waste?

There are two choices- reprocessing which is much more dangerous and increases the threat of nuclear profileration-there goes homeland security or some other state can take it as they see themselves not as worthy as Nevada.

Or nuclear waste can be dumped in the Alberta TarSands; alternatively they can be dumped in Ontario, Canada which wants to go Nuclear bigtime with the McGuinty government.

But maybe we’re all Nevadans-none of us deserve this nuclear toxic waste. We must and we can do better- 100% Renewable and public power-or bust.

google Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance for more

On October 31, 2007, dozens of energy and nuclear experts wrote the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development

 http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_security/Community-letter-GNEP-Congress_Final.pdf

“We write to oppose the Department of Energy (DOE), Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) plan for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel because it undermines U.S. nonproliferation policy, would cost taxpayers $100 billion dollars or more … We urge you to eliminate funding for the program… Proposed enrichment or reprocessing programs in other countries create similar dangers. Clearly GNEP is fostering the spread of reprocessing technology and dangerous nuclear weapons-usable materials, undermining U.S. nonproliferation goals.

Bush’s Nuclear Reprocessing Plan Under Fire

Miles A. Pomper July/August 2008

 http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2008_07-08/BushNuclear.asp

The Bush administration’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) program, already under siege, has been further imperiled after recent action by several congressional panels and an April report from the congressional watchdog agency.
Utah Nuclear Waste Company Wants to Accept Italy’s Atomic Debris

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,500446,00.html
SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge is set to hear arguments Thursday from a nuclear waste disposal company that says a regional compact does not bar America’s only commercial radioactive waste dump from accepting Italy’s atomic debris.Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions Inc. filed the lawsuit because the regional compact is refusing to let the company dispose of up to 1,600 tons of low-level radioactive waste from Italy at its Clive, Utah facility, about 70 miles west of Salt Lake City.

“In a nutshell, we do not believe that under the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act that the Clive facility is a quote, ‘regional disposal facility’, and therefore if we’re not a regional disposal facility then we are not under the jurisdiction of the Northwest Compact,” said EnergySolutions spokeswoman Jill Sigal.

Congress created regional compacts in 1985 to provide states with a way to dispose of their own low-level radioactive waste. However, only two regional facilities were ever built — at Richland, Washington and Barnwell, South Carolina. EnergySolutions’ site is America’s largest low-level radioactive waste dump and the only one available to 36 states.

The company wants to import up to 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy’s shuttered nuclear power program through the ports of Charleston, South Carolina, or New Orleans.

If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission grants the company an import license, it would be the largest amount of nuclear waste ever brought into the country.

After processing in Tennessee, the remaining waste would be shipped to Utah…

 http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/nuclear-waste-not-good-enough-for-navadagood-enough-for-who-ontario/

Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance (a homeless network of transborder activists, students, academics, Aboriginal etc.)