Moble Chernobyl

["D. Kosloff" <dkosloff@ncweb.com>]

Here is how the winning side works:

Action Alert

Nuclear Information & Resource Service
1424 16th St. NW, Suite 404
Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone (202) 328-0002
Fax (202) 462-2183
e-mail: nirsne-@nirs.org

Your Action Needed Now More Than Ever
To Stop Mobile Chernobyl and the Yucca Mountain Dump!

Calls/Letters to Congress and Attendance at Dept. of Energy Public
Hearings Needed

For the past several years while I still lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I
regularly heard my U.S. Representative Fred Upton -- sponsor of the
Mobile Chernobyl bill in the U.S. House -- claim that Yucca Mountain is
the perfect place to store high-level nuclear wastes because its bone
dry and located in an uninhabited desert wasteland. Well, last week on
my tour deep within the tunnels of Yucca Mountain, imagine my surprise
to see drips from the ceiling and puddles of water on the floor: an
experiment to see what the high temperatures of nuclear waste would do
to the rock of Yucca Mountain is forcing out water trapped in pores and
fissures; it then forms condensation, drips and puddles. While standing
atop the mountain, a Nevada geologist pointed out how rainwater
sometimes vanishes instantly into the ground, flowing downward. Looking
out to the horizon, I could see Amargosa Valley not far away, a farming
community directly downstream that will receive radioactive
contamination via the groundwater. Guess Yucca Mountains not a bone
dry, uninhabited wasteland after all. Looking out at all the solar
powered instruments atop Yucca Mountain (yes, this is the worlds first
solar powered nuclear waste dump!) -- seismographs measuring earthquake
activity, weather stations recording which way the wind will blow the
radioactive gases that will inevitably escape, the global positioning
satellite antenna studying how quickly the Earths crust is expanding
(which could mean theres a magma pocket beneath), I cant fathom how
the nuclear establishment could do anything but disqualify the site from
further consideration.

Yet, moves are on within the U.S. Congress and the Department of Energy
(DOE) to lock-in the proposed high-level atomic waste dump at Yucca
Mountain, Nevada - and thus launch tens of thousands of truck and train
shipments through 43 states in the years and decades to come. NIRS has
been instrumental in fending off this nuclear madness for 6 years thanks
to help from supporters like you, and we need your help again right now.

Because of citizen pressure, DOE has added three last-minute public
hearings to its Yucca Mountain Environmental Impact Statement process in
major hub cities along atomic waste transport routes. We need to turn
out hundreds to speak against the Yucca Mountain dump and Mobile
Chernobyl - more info. on the hearings follows further below as well:

Mon., Jan. 24: Lincoln, NE: Ramada Inn - Airport, 1101 West Bond St., 11
am - 2 pm and 6 pm - 9 pm.
Fri., Jan. 28: Cleveland, OH: Holiday Inn Lakeside City Ctr., 1111
Lakeside Ave., same times as above.
Tues., Feb. 1: Chicago, IL: Hotel Intercontinental, 505 North Michigan
Ave., same times as above.

Congress resumes its session immediately after President Clintons State
of the Union address on Monday, January 24th. All indications are that
the nuclear industry, its lobbyists and its proponents in the Congress
plan to hit the ground (or Floor) running. The House version of the
Mobile Chernobyl bill, H.R. 45 sponsored by Upton (R-Mich.) passed the
Commerce Committee last year. Upton probably has enough votes in the
House to override President Clintons promised veto. However, the House
bill is held up by the Senate version of Mobile Chernobyl, where the
veto override is much less certain.

Senator Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) is Chairman of the Energy and Natural
Resources Committee and the nuclear industrys point man in the U.S.
Senate. He has publicly announced that his Nuclear Waste Policy
Amendments Act of 2000 is his highest priority in this new session of
Congress. Murkowskis bill, S. 1287,  would gut environmental standards
at Yucca Mountain, doom the underground aquifer to radioactive
contamination, condemn 1 in 1,000 exposed downwinders (downstreamers) to
fatal cancer, make the Nuclear Regulatory Commission rather than the
Environmental Protection Agency guardian of public health (talk about
the fox guarding the hen house!) and lock-in the site even before its
suitability has been officially determined. Majority Leader Trent Lott
(R-Miss.), who decides the Senates calendar, has indicated that S. 1287
is high on his list. Rumors in D.C. are that this bill may be one of the
first to hit the Senate Floor in the new session, requiring our
immediate action. Our job is to make sure that we hold on to the 34
votes in the Senate needed to sustain President Clintons promised veto
- or, even better yet, we could head off a vote from happening at all.

Now is the time to contact YOUR Senators and Rep. and urge them to vote
NO on S. 1287 and H.R. 45. Tell them about the faults mentioned above,
and that these Mobile Chernobyl bills would needlessly endanger over 50
million Americans living within half a mile of high-level atomic waste
transport routes by senselessly rushing tens of thousands of tons of
atomic wastes to a site that the DOEs own studies show will almost
certainly leak. These wastes are so deadly we must be sure that our
moving them around actually improves the situation, not make it worse!

Phone calls and simple, concise hand-written letters are  most
effective. Members of Congress always check their phone log and file of
letters received before their votes, so your action now can make a big
difference on S. 1287 and H.R. 45.

Phone the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be patched
through to your U.S. Senators and Representative. For addressing
letters:

To Your Senators:  To Your Representative:

The Honorable [full name]  The Honorable [full name]
United States Senate  United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510  Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Senator (last name):  Dear Representative (last name):

Be sure to tell your Members of Congress:

* Vote NO on S. 1287 (Senators)/H.R. 45 (House Rep.)
* Support EPA, not NRC, as the standard setter for Yucca Mountain.
* NRC is not independent, and would be the fox guarding the hen house.
* Protect groundwater at Yucca Mountain and all nuclear sites.
* Radiation standards should protect the most vulnerable exposed persons
- the unborn children.
* 10,000 years compliance is not enough; these wastes remain deadly for
hundreds of thousands of years.
* These bills would needlessly endanger over 50 million Americans living
within half a mile of atomic waste transport routes.

The more calls and letters the better, of course. Why not consider
hosting a letter writing party for family, friends, neighbors and fellow
activists? For you football fans, how about a Nuclear-Free Superbowl
half-time letter writing party? For a sample letter to a Member of
Congress (available Monday), please visit the NIRS website at
www.nirs.org

Another effective action is sending a letter to the editor of your local
paper, for Members of Congress faithfully read these to keep their
finger on the pulse of their constituency. Write a hard-hitting letter
to the editor and get it out to papers in your area. See our website for
a sample op/ed piece (available by Monday) you can use to help write one
tailored to your own locality. Remind your community that Yucca Mountain
is a local issue - when it comes to nuclear waste transport, we all live
in Nevada!

In addition to fending off Congress ill-conceived initiatives, we also
need to give the U.S. Department of Energy a well-deserved chastising.
The DOEs deadline for public comment on its Draft Environmental Impact
Statement (DEIS) for the proposed Yucca Mountain dump - and Mobile
Chernobyls by the thousands that go hand in hand with it - is fast
approaching. Public comments need to be in to DOE by February 9th, 2000.

Because of citizen pressure, DOE has added three more public hearings:
Lincoln, Nebraska; Cleveland, Ohio; and Chicago, Illinois. The dates,
times and exact locations were given above. If you live close enough to
attend one of these hearings in person, please do - and take lots of
friends with you. If you know folks who live close to these hearing
locations, please notify them to get out and testify. Numbers count, and
we need to show DOE that lots of people care, are watching them closely,
and wont let them do the wrong thing just to please the nuclear power
industry. You can pre-register for a 5 to 10 minute time slot in which
to testify by phoning DOE at 1-800-967-3477. Contact Kevin Kamps at NIRS
(202-328-0002 or kevi-@igc.org) for more info., or to receive NIRS fact
sheets to use at the hearings.

DOE has tried to downplay the dangers of high-level radioactive waste
transportation by obscuring what routes will be used in its DEIS, and by
limiting the number of public hearings along major transport routes
outside of Nevada. Another creative response to DOEs roadblocks to
public involvement has been the organizing of Peoples Hearings - if
DOE wont condescend to hear us where were at on this issue of utmost
importance, then well hold our own hearings and submit the recorded
testimony as official public comment! Peoples Hearings are scheduled
for Chicago on Thurs., Jan. 27th and Kalamazoo, Michigan on Sat., Jan.
29th. Others are coming together in Oklahoma, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and Louisiana. Contact Mark Matthias at Public Citizens
Critical Mass Energy Project about plugging in to a Peoples Hearing
near you, or to organize your own: phone (202) 546-4996, or e-mail
matthia-@citizen.org

If youre not able to attend hearings, please still submit comments to
DOE by Feb. 9th. Even short, to-the-point comments will make a big
impact, showing DOE loud and clear the nationwide opposition to the
Yucca Mountain dump and Mobile Chernobyl. There are many faults (yes,
including earthquake faults) in DOEs DEIS upon which to comment. To
help you compose your own personal comments, please refer to NIRS
sample comments covering different aspects of the DOEs DEIS. We will
post them at our website, www.nirs.org, as soon as possible.  Also visit
Public Citizens Critical Mass Energy Project website at
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/ under nuclear waste for more sample
comments.

Your comments can be submitted in writing, via the Internet, or by fax.
Written comments should be sent to:

Ms. Wendy R. Dixon
EIS Program Manager
Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office
Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management
U.S. Department of Energy
P.O. Box 30307, M/S 010
North Las Vegas, NV 89036-0307

Written comments can also be faxed to 1-800-967-0739. Be sure to include
Yucca Mountain Draft EIS as an identifier on all written comments.

Comments can also be submitted via the Internet at http://www.ymp.gov.
Click the Environmental Impact Statement on the left hand side
selection bar. Then select Submit a Comment on the Draft EIS.

Thank you for your actions to fend off efforts within Congress and the
DOE to launch high-level atomic wastes onto our highways and railways,
to dump them in a leaking hole in the ground. Together, weve stopped
this nuclear madness for many years, and together we can continue to
defend present and future generations against the deadly wastes of the
nuclear industry.

If you need any assistance, contact Kevin Kamps at NIRS: ph.
202-328-0002, or kevi-@igc.org

Prepared by Kevin Kamps on Thursday, Jan. 20th, 2000.



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