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News :: Miscellaneous |
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US House Vote on Yucca Mountain Nuke Waste Dump, Wed., May 8, 12:30pmEDT! |
Current rating: 0 |
by Kevin Kamps
(No verified email address)
Phone: 202-328-0002 |
08 May 2002
Modified: 04:58:50 PM |
Yes, 12:30 Eastern time.
Thus, first thing Wed. Morning, May 8th let your fingers do the walking, because it's your last chance to urge your US Representative to do the right thing and oppose Yucca Mountain & Mobile Chernobyl! |
Yes, 12:30 Eastern time.
Thus, first thing Wed. Morning, May 8th let your fingers do the walking, because it's your last chance to urge your US Representative to do the right thing and oppose Yucca Mountain & Mobile Chernobyl!
The 20 year long process that began with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 is coming to a head. The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to make its ultimate vote on the Yucca Mountain dump proposal on Wed., May 8th. Debate is supposed to begin at 12:30 p.m. The debate will be limited to two hours. Two hours of debate? But the waste will remain deadly for hundreds of thousands of years! After the two hours of debate, then the vote will take place.
CALL YOUR US REPRESENTATIVE ONE LAST TIME BEFORE THE VOTE. URGE THEM TO OPPOSE THE YUCCA MOUNTAIN DUMP AND THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF HIGH-LEVEL ATOMIC WASTE TRUCKS, TRAINS, AND BARGES IT WOULD LAUNCH THROUGH 45 STATES.
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be transferred to your Representative's office.
Or, go to Public Citizen's website at
http://action.citizen.org/pc/dbq/officials/
to find out who your Representative is, how to contact his/her office directly, and how to send an e-mail to them about this issue.
The official name for this move to override Nevada's veto of Bush's thumbs up to the dump is House Joint Resolution 87 (HJR 87), a resolution of repository siting approval. Please urge your Representative to vote "no"!
If your Rep's office throws that radioactive curve ball and asks "What is YOUR alternative to the Yucca plan?", present Rep. Dennis Kucinich's Nuclear Waste Transportation Protection Amendments Act (H.R. 4605) as a positive alternative to the bad Yucca Mountain/Mobile Chernobyl plan. For example, HR 4605 would require full-scale physical safety testing to destruction on the transportation containers (not currently required), and would strengthen the security force used to safeguard casks against terrorist attack (current regulations, still on the books after Sept. 11th, are woefully inadequate).
The US Senate will likely vote on the dump in the next month or two. Once we've caught our breath from the Yucca steamroller that has screamed through the US House, we need to get busy pressuring our Senators to oppose Yucca and Mobile Chernobyl! Get some rest, then get busy!!!
For more information visit http://www.citizen.org/cmep , http://www.nirs.org , or http://www.atomicroadshow.org .
Sign our online petition opposing Yucca Mountain at http://www.yuccapetition.org , and send it out far and wide to all your email contacts. We want 500,000 signatures in five weeks -- help us make that goal!
Thanks to Lisa Gue at Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program for providing the backbone of this action alert.
---Kevin Kamps, NIRS, 202.328.0002 |
See also:
http://www.nirs.org/
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Dangerous Nuclear Waste Dump Plan Heads for Senate Showdown |
by Sierra Club
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 May 2002
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WASHINGTON - May 8 - The Sierra Club today applauded the 117 members of the House of Representatives who stood up for public health and the environment by voting against a dangerous proposal to store nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Though the measure passed the House, it now faces greater opposition in the Senate.
"These lawmakers had the courage to put the health and safety of current and future generations ahead of short-term political expediency," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "Every day, we learn more about the grave threat to public health and the environment that this unsound scheme poses. Americans don't want convoys of nuclear waste on their roads and rails."
The plan, which is being backed by the powerful nuclear industry, calls for thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste to be transported across the country on trucks, trains, and barges. It would then be dumped at Yucca Mountain, just ninety miles from Las Vegas, America's fastest growing city.
100,000 shipments of nuclear waste would be made over the next 31 years, making accidents all but certain. Millions of Americans would be needlessly threatened with exposure to highly radioactive material in the event of an accident or terrorist attack. The choice of Yucca Mountain itself rests on shaky science - the mountain leaks, meaning that nuclear waste could seep into the groundwater, jeopardizing the health of hundreds of thousands of local residents.
Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn vetoed the proposal a month ago, sending the issue to Congress. Now both Houses must vote to over-ride Governor Guinn's veto if the plan is to go forward. The Senate is expected to take up the issue in June.
A broad coalition of environmental, public interest, and taxpayer groups has joined with the state of Nevada and a growing number of elected officials from Washington state to Massachusetts to oppose the plan.
"The Yucca Mountain proposal would set in motion a high-stakes game of nuclear Russian roulette," continued Pope. "The plan puts the wishes of the nuclear industry ahead of the health and safety of ordinary Americans."
http://www.sierraclub.org |
