Sign the Petition To Stop the Threat of High-Level Nuclear Waste

 To the Honorable President and members of Congress of the United States of America 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

We, the undersigned, American citizens, hereby request Presidential and Congressional intervention in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s attempted licensing of consolidated interim storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel within the Permian Basin region of Texas and New Mexico. 

We request assistance in ensuring that the NRC adhere to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guidelines that prohibit Spent Nuclear Fuel storage in the vicinity of exploitable mineral and energy resources. 

We, likewise, seek your intervention against the transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel and other high-level nuclear waste through our cities and counties. Any proposed transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel must first undergo an independent, scientifically rigorous review process that ensures the safety of the process and surrounding communities. 

We petition you, our elected officials, to enact legislation that adopts these guidelines and rejects consolidated interim storage within the Permian Basin – a region of our country providing American Energy Independence. 

PETITION 

This petition is meant to formally communicate our opposition to plans currently underway to transport high-level nuclear waste, or spent nuclear fuel, across major U.S. cities for storage in the Permian Basin region of Texas and New Mexico – an area of our country that significantly contributes to American Energy Independence. 

With this petition, we respectfully request your intervention in the licensing actions currently underway at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by which two private companies, Holtec International and Waste Control Specialists/Interim Storage Partners, have selected and seek to license storage sites to receive the country’s entire inventory of Spent Nuclear Fuel and other associated high-level nuclear waste. 

We, the undersigned, join thousands of Americans who do not consent to the transport of Spent Nuclear Fuel and other high-level nuclear waste through our cities and towns. Nor do we agree to its storage in the Permian Basin, an area providing our country with energy independence for the first time in three generations. 

The Permian Basin region of Texas and New Mexico is rich in agricultural products, oil, and gas. In fact, it is the most oil productive basin in the world. 

The Permian Basin contributes to America’s economy, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs, and adding significantly to our national security and our country’s energy independence. 

In order to bring this deadly, radiological material to storage in the Permian Basin, it must first be transported through hundreds of communities; on barges into American ports; on rail lines upon our aging infrastructure - all to arrive at the small towns of Lea County, New Mexico and Andrews 

County, Texas. Given the questions surrounding the transportation of aged Spent Nuclear Fuel, this should give all decision makers great pause. 

Until a permanent, deep geologic repository is established, this high-level nuclear waste should stay put. 

Among our concerns: 

• Aboveground Storage: Instead of deep, underground storage – the license applicants intend to store high-level nuclear waste at the surface, for an undetermined period of time, where it is most vulnerable to Chloride Induced Stress Corrosion Cracking (CI-SCC) and acts of terrorism or sabotage. 

• Terrorism: Energy terrorism seeks to disrupt supply capabilities and trigger economic losses. High-level waste shipped via rail and stored at the surface creates a soft target for terrorism. 

• Presence of Groundwater and Aquifers: Evidence of aquifers and groundwater formations beneath and in the region of the proposed waste sites disqualifies them from consideration. 

• Geologic Hazards: The storage license applicants have not acknowledged the known geologic hazards in the area of their sites, including a failure to report on the heavily faulted nature of the Central Basin Platform upon which their sites are located; the possibility of hundreds of unmarked, abandoned wells; the presence of karst and sinkholes; and the ongoing potash mining activities. The applicants also fail to address the salt playas in the region which will contribute to the deterioration of their stainless-steel casks (Chloride-Induced Stress Corrosion Cracking). 

• Transport Hazards: The risks of transporting this most deadly cargo, carrying a weight of approximately 150-ton casks, through our cities and counties, exposes our first responders to unwanted risk, threatens our communities, and is an affront to local and state officials that shall have no oversight or even a right to participate in the selection of routes, and who will be silenced by the federal rules that create a blanket of secrecy over the transport of this waste. 

• Possible Second Transport: Although there are no plans to develop a permanent disposal site, if one were made available, then local communities would endure the risks of transport, a second time. 

• Socioeconomic Impact: the two small communities saddled with the Nation’s high-level nuclear waste as well as those along the rail route can expect property value depletion and greater risk of exposure to radiological material. 

• Violation of Federal law: The NRC is already violating the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act by removing the states’ rights to consent to these sites. What makes anyone think the NRC will not continue to silence state and local officials who raise concerns about the transportation of these deadly materials? 

Among the cities and states discussed as routes through which high-level nuclear waste may travel: 

Currently, there is no plan for how-to-deal with the country’s growing nuclear waste problem. 

Until the country has developed a permanent solution, we propose alternatives such as establishing a federal repository operated by the military or reprocessing/recycling this highly valuable Spent Nuclear Fuel into new fuel, thus substantially reducing the volumes of waste that would have to eventually be disposed in a permanent repository. 

The current plan to transport up to 210,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste across America for “temporary” storage until the NRC comes up with a permanent solution is irresponsible and dangerous to all those along the rail routes and in the vicinity of the proposed storage sites. 

Although a final solution for America's nuclear waste problem is sorely needed, the current proposals under review by the NRC are not solutions to this problem. The proposals raise environmental and economic concerns of grave consequence. Further, they are in violation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and Administrative Procedures Act, as evidenced by Congress' proposed legislation. 

Therefore, we seek your intervention to halt the ongoing plans to transport and store America’s inventory of Spent Nuclear Fuel and high-level waste in the Permian Basin and respectfully request the enactment of legislation prohibiting such actions, now and in the future. 

Help Us Create Awareness of this National Issue

Ways You Can Take Action:

1. Contact your local representative. We know that a phone call or a physical letter are two of the best ways to let elected officials know of our concerns.

2. Sign the petition to stop the transport and storage of high-level nuclear waste in the Permian Basin.

3. Share the petition with friends and family. The more voices that speak up, the better chance we have of our government intervening.

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