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Summit to Halt High-Level Radioactive Waste Dumping

No Nuclear Waste Aqui NM Summit artwork

Deadly radioactive waste should not be unleashed…
Protect New Mexico and Texas communities from high-level radioactive waste dumping!

Help Alliance for Environmental Strategies plan for action at the

Summit to Halt High-Level Radioactive Waste Dumping
Saturday, December 9th, 9 AM – 5 PM
Comfort Suites, 3610 N. Main Street, Roswell, NM

Register by emailing marquezarts@yahoo.com Lunch will be provided. $20 donation suggested.

Informal reception Friday night, Dec. 8th 7-9 PM at Tia Juana’s in Roswell, across from the hotel.
Need a room? Reserve a Comfort Suites room held for Alliance for Environmental Strategies by calling 844-429-4399. Learn more at www.NoNuclearWasteAqui.org

Credible Threat of Severe Accident at Texas Nuclear Reactors Still Running During Hurricane

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Organization Profile:
Beyond Nuclear

Contact:
Paul Gunter, 301-523-0201; Susan Dancer, 979-479-0627; Karen Hadden, 512-797-8481

TAKOMA PARK, MD – Watchdog groups today warned that there is "a credible threat of a severe accident" at the two nuclear reactors still operating at 100% power in Bay City, TX in the midst of severe flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. The groups called for the immediate shutdown of the South Texas Project (STP) which sits behind an embankment that is at risk of breaching, given the unprecedented volume of water raining down in the region.

"Both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the STP operator have previously recognized a credible threat of a severe accident initiated by a breach of the embankment wall that surrounds the 7,000-acre reactor cooling water reservoir," said Paul Gunter, Director of the Reactor Oversight Project with Beyond Nuclear in Takoma Park, MD.

A 12-mile long earth and cement dike surrounds South Texas Project’s Main Cooling Reservoir. The top of the cooling reservoir wall is between 65 and 67 feet above mean sea level, with the reactor site situated below at 29 feet above mean sea level. The NRC is not providing a status report on the water level in the reservoir where the normal maximum operating level is 49 feet above mean sea level.

A breach of the embankment wall would create an external flood potentially impacting the electrical supply from the switchyard to the reactor safety systems. This could cause high-energy electrical fires and other cascading events initiating a severe accident leading to core damage. Additionally, any significant loss of cooling water inventory in the Main Cooling Reservoir would reduce cooling capacity to the still operating reactors that could result in a meltdown.

"However remote, it’s simply prudent that the operator put this reactor into its safest condition, cold shutdown," Gunter concluded.

"The Bay City Mayor and Matagorda County Judge have now issued mandatory evacuation orders as Bay City is expected to be ten feet under water in a flood," said Susan Dancer, President of the South Texas Association for Responsible Energy who has had to flee her home.

"Our 911 system is down, no emergency services are available, and yet the nuclear reactors are still running. Where is the concern for employees and their families? Where is the concern for public safety?" asked Dancer. "This is an outrageous and irresponsible decision."

Dancer recalled the "unimaginable" triple disaster in Japan in 2011 where a tsunami and earthquake combined to cripple three nuclear reactors which exploded and melted down, contaminating a wide area with radiation indefinitely and complicating rescue and evacuation efforts.

"This storm and flood is absolutely without precedent even before adding the possibility of a nuclear accident that could further imperil millions of people who are already battling for their lives," added Dancer.

"The Colorado River is cresting extremely high and flowing at 70 times the normal rate," said Karen Hadden, Director of SEED Coalition. "It’s expected to approach flood stage (44 feet) near Bay City today, and exceed flood stage on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Flood waters reaching the nuclear reactors could make operation increasingly dangerous and the rains are expected to continue.

"There is plenty of reserve capacity on our electric grid, so we don’t have to run the reactors in order to keep the lights on. With anticipated flooding of the Colorado River, the nuclear reactors should be shut down now to ensure safety," Hadden said.

Utilities in Houston, San Antonio and Austin own the nuclear reactor and operate it as South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC). South Texas Project is seeking to get re-licensed for 20 more years.

###

Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.

Fair Use Notice
This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. SEED Coalition is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a "fair use" of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

City considering opposing nuclear waste transport

March 9, 2017

By Brendan Gibbons STAFF WRITER
San Antonio Express-News

San Antonio City Council members are considering whether to get involved legally in an application to begin accepting highly radioactive nuclear waste at a privately operated site in West Texas.

A request filed by District 8 councilman and mayoral candidate Ron Nirenberg expresses opposition to having thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel pass through San Antonio via freight rail. Bexar County commissioners passed a similar resolution in February.

“It would be nonsensical to put the waste inventory … through one of the largest metro communities in the country,” Nirenberg said.

Unlike the county’s resolution, Nirenberg’s request asks city staff to “explore the opportunity to intervene” in an application by Waste Control Specialists to store spent nuclear fuel. An intervenor is an outside entity that joins a proceeding with the permission of a judge.

WCS officials have said they eventually hope to accept up to 40,000 tons over 40 years, which would require shipping 3,000 canisters of waste.

The spent nuclear fuel left over from the process of generating electricity is now being stored at 62 active or closed nuclear power plants across the U.S. The independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing the WCS application to store a portion of this waste at a site near Andrews.

In a February interview, NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre said intervenors need to prove legal standing and provide at least one “admissible contention,” a legitimate argument that WCS’ application would not adequately protect public health and safety.

The resolution seems to have the support of most council members. Several said they want to at least have a public discussion over the proposal and whether it makes sense for the city to intervene.

In a statement Thursday, Mayor Ivy Taylor said she supports the resolution going before the council’s Governance Committee.

“I also believe that city staff should at least have a seat at the table during the NRC licensing process to ensure their decisions do not negatively impact our community’s health and safety,” she said.

The deadline for intervening before the NRC is March 31. bgibbons(at)express-news.net Twitter: @bgibbs

Radioactive Waste Bill Threatens Texas and New Mexico; Poses Nationwide Risks from Dangerous Unnecessary Transport

October 11, 2017

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Karen Hadden, SEED Coalition, 512-797-8481
Tom "Smitty" Smith, Senior Advocate for Public Citizen’s Texas Office, 512-797-8468

Citizens Oppose HR 3053 – Nuclear Waste Policy Act Amendments of 2017

AUSTIN, TX, — Texas and New Mexico are targeted as ground zero for the nation’s high-level radioactive waste, the most deadly of all radioactive materials. Dallas, Bexar, Midland and Nueces County Commissions in Texas and the cities of San Antonio and Lake Arthur, New Mexico studied the issue and passed resolutions opposing transport of high-level radioactive waste through their communities. But Congress will soon debate a bill that would smooth the path for consolidated interim storage by removing an existing hurdle in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

The NRC could then license consolidated interim storage facilities proposed for Texas and New Mexico. An unprecedented mass movement of high-level radioactive waste across the nation could occur, with over 10,000 train shipments, occurring over a period of 24 years. A previous DOE study found that at least one train accident could be expected if transport was mainly by train. A 42-square mile area could be contaminated from a small radioactive release, and remediation costs could range from $620 million in a rural area up to $9.5 billion for a single square mile in a major city.

"Public health and safety should be prioritized," said Dallas County Commissioner Dr. Theresa Daniel, who sponsored the resolution passed by Dallas County. "Congress should enact protections for communities along potential transport routes, not speed progress toward consolidated interim storage in Texas and New Mexico. Shimkus’ H.R. 3053 should be amended to require that transport routes be designated and public hearings be held before any radioactive waste facility can be licensed. People have a right to know if they would be at risk."

"Moving this deadly waste simply to store it all in one place creates unnecessary risks from accidents, leaks and terrorism," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, Senior Advocate for Public Citizen’s Texas office. "There’s no need to move it right now and it’s less dangerous to secure it at reactor sites. Radioactive waste should only be moved once, when a permanent repository with the right location and robust storage systems is available, in order to isolate the waste for millions of years. Storing dangerous radioactive waste for decades in a seismically active region can only lead to disaster. Millions of people could be impacted by leaks or an accident if the nation’s largest aquifer, the Ogallala, became contaminated."

"Trains carrying high-level radioactive waste from reactors around the country should not come through our communities or move alongside major military bases in San Antonio, especially since each rail car would carry as much plutonium as was in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki," said Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, Jr., who sponsored the resolution passed there. "I hope our Texas Congressional delegation will oppose H.R. 3053, the bill that removes existing protections in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and could lead to dangerous nuclear reactor waste from the whole country being dumped here. We say "Don’t Mess With Texas."

"We received none of the electricity produced by nuclear reactors in California, Chicago or New York, and had no economic benefit from them," said Elizabeth Padilla, a concerned mother in Andrews County. "It is a massive injustice to bring in the most deadly radioactive waste from the entire country and dump it in our backyard. They generated the waste. They should take responsibility for storing it where it was generated, and not dump it on communities that don’t have the millions of dollars needed to fight back."

"My community does not want dangerous radioactive waste, despite claims made by nuclear lobbyists and politicians who see us as their dumping ground," said Rose Gardner who has been fighting low-level radioactive waste in her community for years. "Two companies now want to bring in the deadliest of all radioactive waste, from around the entire country, store it in our backyard and keep it there for decades. We don’t want it and we don’t consent to being dumped on. We live here. We have children. And we’re not the sacrifice zone for wealthier communities who should keep their own waste." Gardner lives in Eunice, New Mexico, 5 miles west of the proposed WCS radioactive waste storage site, and southeast of the proposed Holtec / Eddy Lea Energy Alliance site, proposed for midway between Carlsbad and Hobbs, NM.

"For decades, the large majority of New Mexicans have repeatedly said NO to commercial spent fuel when it was proposed by the Department of Energy for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and when utilities proposed a Holtec-type dump on Mescalero Apache land. Those proposals were defeated. The Holtec site will also stopped," said Don Hancock, Nuclear Waste Program Director at Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

"The Navajo Nation prohibits transport of radioactive materials through Diné Bikeyah-our indigenous lands-but doesn’t have jurisdiction over federal and state highways or railways," said Leona Morgan of Diné No Nukes, an organization working to address nuclear colonialism. "In addition to the thousands of abandoned uranium mines in the Southwest, having high-level radioactive waste transported through and dumped here would add to the radioactive risks people suffer already."

What can be done?

"Homeowners’ insurance policies generally don’t cover nuclear accidents and no one wants their children accidentally exposed to radiation that can cause cancer, genetic damage or death," said Karen Hadden, Executive Director of Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition. "We call on our Congressional leaders to stop the insane path toward dumping the nation’s radioactive waste on Texas and New Mexico. We strongly oppose Shimkus’ bill. At minimum, it should be amended to require that transportation routes be designated before any consolidated interim storage site for deadly radioactive waste can be licensed. People have a right to know if they’re at risk for shipments of radioactive waste coming through their neighborhoods."

Expected routes to Yucca Mountain were previously developed. Routes to Texas and New Mexico consolidated interim storage sites could be similar, but have not been designated.

Please visit:

https://www.nirs.org/campaigns/dont-waste-america/
– more information about HR 3053 and consolidated interim storage

https://www.nirs.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Cities_Affected.pdf
(With 20 of the major cities high-level radioactive waste could travel through)

Related Media Items:

Power outages add to woes in water-soaked Texas

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Edward Klump
E&E News reporter

HOUSTON — As rain continues in the wake of Tropical Storm Harvey, Texas is coping with a significant loss of electricity, even if the current outage numbers in and around America’s fourth largest city aren’t as large as might be expected.

And people in areas with heavy damage face the prospect of a power restoration process that could last weeks or longer.

CenterPoint Energy Inc., the main electric wires utility for the Houston metro area, reported more than 105,000 customers — or homes and businesses — without power in its territory as of 10:52 a.m. local time. Remarkably, over 95 percent of the 2.4-million-plus customers in CenterPoint’s service area had electricity as of this morning.

CenterPoint cautioned that it can’t get to everyone to address lost power or assess natural gas issues. It also remains to be seen how much damage has occurred to the company’s infrastructure. Floodwaters need to recede before individual restoration time estimates are available, the company said.

"Our crews are responding to outages throughout our service territory where they can safely do so," CenterPoint said in a statement today. Houston continues to see "catastrophic flooding" and strong winds, it said.

The company said that, in some places, it’s "proactively taking service off the grid in order to avoid long-term damage to our electric infrastructure, which could potentially result in a longer restoration time."

After Hurricane Ike in 2008, many people in the Houston area were without power for weeks after high winds toppled trees and took down power lines. CenterPoint credited its use of technology and an emergency response plan for enabling it to return electricity to over 580,000 customers since Harvey began affecting its territory Friday, even if the outlook for thousands of customers remains fuzzy.

The restoration effort is being aided by advanced meters that pinpoint outages. There’s also the fact that Harvey’s arrival with hurricane-force winds occurred down the Texas coast, although the storm later stalled near Houston and caused massive flooding, periods of high winds and reports of tornadoes.

Ed Hirs, an energy economist with the University of Houston, also described improved maintenance of rights of way for power lines in CenterPoint’s territory. He said it’s remarkable to see the level of electric service across much of the metro area.

"Everyone’s acutely aware that it maintains the social fabric — traffic lights, refrigeration, air conditioning, communications, emergency response, health care clinics, the fuel stations that are open, the grocery stores that are open," he said.

More broadly in Texas and Louisiana, about 288,349 customers were without power in affected areas as of 10 a.m. EDT today, according to the Edison Electric Institute. EEI had reported an outage total of about 310,000 as of 6 p.m. EDT yesterday in a news release on Harvey.

EEI stressed yesterday that some areas along Texas’ coast could be unable to take power service "for weeks or months."

Tom Kuhn, EEI’s president, said that damage assessments were happening and that power restoration progress would occur as soon as it could happen safely.

"At this point, nearly 10,000 workers are dedicated to the response and recovery effort," Kuhn said yesterday in a statement. "This includes crews, lineworkers, and support personnel from the impacted companies and mutual assistance crews from at least 19 states across the country. Additional resources are ready to mobilize to assist if needed to further support restoration."

Patience is appreciated

EEI said the industry was coordinating with the federal government, including with Energy Secretary Rick Perry, a former Texas governor, who has been in contact with chief executives of companies affected by Harvey.

"As we are all seeing, the devastation and flooding from Harvey are catastrophic, and this will be a long-duration restoration event," Kuhn said.

Entergy Texas, a unit of Entergy Corp., reported thousands of customers without power yesterday and said the number could climb. Its region includes some locations north and east of Houston.

"More heavy rain is predicted for some areas, and these areas have already had over 20 inches of rain," Vernon Pierce, vice president of customer service for Entergy Texas, said in a statement.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s main grid operator, said yesterday that the grid remained in "stable condition" after Harvey.

In a statement dated yesterday, ERCOT said several transmission lines were out of service, including near Corpus Christi and Victoria. Two major 345-kilovolt transmission lines that serve the Gulf Coast region were not in service, ERCOT said.

As of midday yesterday, the grid operator said a little over 6,700 megawatts of generating capacity was offline for storm-related reasons. That included some renewables.

NRG Energy Inc., a major power producer in Texas, went into emergency preparedness at power plants in the Gulf Coast before Harvey made landfall.

"Any time you have this much rain, you will have issues but one of the advantages of our geographically and fuel diverse fleet is that we can look at it from a holistic view and continue to generate the power needed," David Knox, an NRG spokesman, said via email today. "I would also add we have our plants staffed 24/7 with food and cots to allow us to outlast the storm."

Meanwhile, power demand in the ERCOT region has been below typical August usage in recent days as the grid operator noted cooler temperatures and structural damage. ERCOT’s region saw a peak of less than 45,000 MW yesterday compared with a peak of more than 60,000 MW on Aug. 24.

"ERCOT operations will continue to focus on overall grid reliability during the restoration process, while transmission and distribution providers make repairs to power lines and electrical equipment," the grid operator said in a statement yesterday. "Additional engineers have been on site around the clock throughout the hurricane and tropical storm to support these operations and stay in constant communication with transmission and generation suppliers."

CenterPoint asked for understanding as people await power restoration in its service territory.

"Our crews are working and will keep working until everyone is restored," the company said today. "We greatly appreciate our customers’ patience."

Twitter: @edward_klump Email: eklump(at)eenews.net

Fair Use Notice
This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. SEED Coalition is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a "fair use" of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.