(see also http://www.citizen.org/documents/goshutetimeline.pdf and http://www.citizen.org/documents/radioactiveracism.pdf for timelines on how the Skull Valley Goshutes in particular and Native Americans in general have been targeted for high-level radioactive waste dumps.)
Written by Kevin Kamps, Nuclear Waste Specialist at Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C. on March 15, 2005. Updated June 10, 2005. [Please inform Kevin of corrections that need to be made: kevin@nirs.org or 202.328.0002 ext. 14]
In short: As of June 10, 2005, although it’s impossible to predict how quickly the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will grant PFS’s license, the five member Commission could literally instruct the NRC staff to grant PFS its license at any time. The NRC Commissioners have been pushing for years for the PFS licensing process to be finished.
What's already happened recently:
Thurs., Feb. 24, 2005:
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety Licensing Board (ASLB) reversed its earlier March 2003 ruling that accidental military aircraft crashes in Skull Valley were four times too probable to build PFS there (that there was a four in a million chance of such a crash, whereas one in a million is the risk cut off for acceptability). ASLB also dismissed the State of Utah's final remaining contention against the dump, that DOE would not accept PFS wastes at Yucca, thus meaning PFS would not be temporary, but rather would be permanent.
Mon., Feb. 28:
The NRC Commissioners (Chairman Diaz plus Jaczko, Lyons, McGaffigan and Merrifield) publish "Order" giving "interested parties" until March 14 to comment on whether or not NRC should make "immediately effective" PFS's license.
Sun., March 6:
A major leak of hazardous chemicals/acids occurs in South Salt Lake City, Utah from a rail tanker car. While dangerous and damaging enough to public health and the environment, this leak begged the question, what if high-level radioactive waste had been on board?
Mon., March 7:
State of Utah submits a "Motion for Reconsideration" to the ASLB, requesting it reconsider its Feb. 24 ruling on aircraft crash risks.
Tues., March 8:
Abby Bullcreek and five additional Skull Valley Goshute tribal members filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Dept. of the Interior and U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs charging that the tribe ousted disputed Tribal Chairman Leon Bear from office in 2001 and replaced his regime with another, which BIA has refused to recognize. The Skull Valley Goshute plaintiffs seek to nullify the lease agreement Bear signed with PFS and re-negotiate the lease after new tribal executive committee elections are held.
Wed., March 9:
Utah's Republican Senators, Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, met with Bush Administration Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove at the White House regarding PFS. The White House made no commitment to help stop PFS. However, Hatch and Bennett stated that they share with the Bush Administration the desire to open the Yucca dump as quickly as possible, and perhaps thus bypass PFS entirely. PFS itself publicly shares such an ideal – Yucca ASAP, making PFS unnecessary. However, given Yucca’s problems, PFS says it will likely be needed.
Utah’s grassroots environmentalists, led by Shundahai Network and HEAL Utah, protested against PFS and high-level radioactive waste shipments in the aftermath of the major hazardous chemical leak on the railway in South Salt Lake that began on March 6.
Sat., March 12:
Nevada's Democratic Senator Harry Reid (U.S. Senate Democratic Leader) was quoted in the press saying that he would, in the next few weeks, introduce legislation that would transfer title to irradiated nuclear fuel at reactor sites from the nuclear utilities to the U.S. Dept. of Energy. Thus, DOE would "own" the waste, paying for the costs of on-site storage at reactors from the Nuclear Waste Fund (previously reserved for Yucca Mountain costs), as well as taking on all liability for the stored wastes from the utilities that generated them (that is, transferring title, costs, and liabilities from the nuclear utilities to U.S. taxpayers). He stated this would make PFS and the Yucca dump unnecessary.
Mon., March 14:
State of Utah submits " Utah's Comments on Commission's Immediate Effectiveness Review" to meet the deadline mentioned above. Utah argues the NRC Commissioners should move very cautiously and slowly on the PFS license application, and should consider policy issues ASLB was barred from considering, such as the terrorist threat to PFS.
However, at a simultaneous press briefing at the National Press Club aimed at countering recent "Hollywood" flicks about nuclear power disasters ("24" on Fox, "Dirty War" on HBO, "Imaging the Unimaginable" and Oscar-award winning "Chernobyl Heart" on HBO last fall, "Meltdown" on Fox several months ago), NRC Chairman Nils Diaz expressed confidence that PFS could withstand accidents or terrorist attacks with little to no radiological impact "beyond two miles." Of course, Margene Bullcreek and other Skull Valley Goshutes live within two miles of the proposed PFS facility!
PFS, of course, argued in its comments that the license should be granted automatically and immediately, as has been done for dry cask storage installations on-site at reactors across the country for over a decade.
As "comments by interested parties," NIRS submitted to NRC the group letter opposing PFS, signed by 240 organizations: 20 Native American organizations (including Margene Bullcreek's OGDA and Sammy Blackbear with Environmental Justice Foundation); 20 national U.S. organizations, 193 regional/state/local U.S. organizations, and 7 international organizations. The combined memberships represent many millions of people across the U.S. and overseas. NIRS also submitted about 6,600 individual letters and petition signatures opposing PFS gathered over the past several years in Utah and across the U.S. along waste transport routes and in PFS member company service areas.
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman met with U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman re: PFS, but obtained no commitment from him to help stop PFS. Huntsman did advocate continued on-site storage at reactors for 30 to 50 years, plus the ultimate goal of reprocessing the waste [a hugely radioactively polluting process of plutonium and uranium extraction from the waste; reprocessing has been discontinued in the U.S. since the Ford and Carter Administrations for economic and nuclear weapons proliferation reasons] rather than sending it out West for burial. [However, even reprocessed waste would require long-term storage, it's not like it magically goes away, it’s just that the still-fissile uranium and plutonium is extracted for re-use in reactors or weapons, leaving behind the several hundred additional poisonous radionuclides.] Huntsman did argue for Nevada and Utah to stand together to fight both the Yucca and PFS dumps, thus conflicting with UT Sens. Hatch and Bennett’s position.
Tues., March 15:
UT Gov. Huntsman met with U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton urging her to direct the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to nullify the Skull Valley Goshutes lease agreement with PFS. The Dept. of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management must also approve a right-of-way for a 30 mile long train line extension down to the reservation in order for PFS to open – yet another hurdle PFS must clear, which Utah will try to stop it from doing.
April 4:
NIRS and Public Citizen hosted a briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. focused on the PFS issue. Featured speakers included Margene Bullcreek (Skull Valley Goshute tribal member and leader of the effort against the dump), Tom Goldtooth (executive director of Indigenous Environmental Network), Anne Sward Hansen (with Environmental Justice Foundation of Utah), Kevin Kamps (Nuclear Waste Specialist at NIRS), and Wenonah Hauter (director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program).
April 5:
The ASLB held oral hearings at the NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland on the State of Utah’s motion for reconsideration of its Feb. 24 ruling. The hearing was scheduled to last for three hours, but ended up lasting six and a half hours.
May 24:
The three-member ASLB rejected UT's Motion for Reconsideration of its Feb. 24 ruling. Thus, the licensing decision now sits squarely before the five member NRC Commission. Since the NRC Commissioners have pushed for years for a final decision on the PFS license, it could act quickly to approve the license, certainly within weeks.
Things that may still happen in opposition to the dump:
In its March 14 "Comments" to NRC (see above), UT requested an opportunity to present oral comments before the NRC Commissioners prior to their decision on the PFS license. However, such oral hearings have historically been reserved for only the most controversial licensing decisions, such as the re-start of Three Mile Island after the meltdown in 1979, the highly controversial licensing proceedings for the Seabrook, NH and Shoreham, NY reactors, etc. In its entire 30 year history, the NRC Commissioners have only granted about a half dozen such oral hearings. So it's not clear UT's request will be honored. Even if it is honored, it is not entirely clear that UT Gov. Huntsman would go before the NRC Commissioners, given the high likelihood that the Commissioners will simply approve the PFS license anyway.
Huntsman may direct his efforts elsewhere, in more potentially effective directions. This might even include another trip to the White House, to meet with George W. Bush re: PFS. (Huntsman, who was in D.C. for a National Governor's Association meeting at the time, attended a White House dinner shortly after the Feb. 24 ASLB ruling. The Salt Lake Press reported at the time that UT's first lady was seated next to George W. Bush, and would speak to him during the dinner re: Utah’s concerns with PFS.)
More distant future:
If necessary, Utah and Margene Bullcreek could file lawsuits against PFS in federal court once the NRC proceeding is over (that is, once their administrative remedies are exhausted at the federal agencies, including Dept. of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management).
If all of Utah’s opposition is defeated, PFS could begin shipping high-level radioactive wastes by train from across the U.S. to Utah as early as 2007.
In fact, legislative language in the U.S. House Energy and Water Appropriations bill that was passed on the House floor on May 24 th would require the U.S. Dept. of Energy to choose one or more regional “interim” storage sites for commercial high-level radioactive waste by the end of Fiscal Year 2006. In addition to DOE sites (such as Hanford, WA; Savannah River, SC; and Idaho National Lab) and closed military bases, “non-federal fuel storage installations” could be used for this regional “interim” storage. This could mean PFS. In fact, PFS could be at the top of the hit list, for “interim” storage installations for commercial high-level radioactive waste require an NRC license, and PFS is the closest facility in the country to receiving one.
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