November 17, 2004
Tell Congress Not to Lower Yucca Mountain Safety Standards!
I think you are going to be getting quite a few action alerts. This is going to be a bad 4 years.
URGENT: Tell Congress Not to Lower Yucca Mountain Safety Standards! (From Public Citizen)
As Congress attempts to complete its annual approprations work during a lame-duck session this week, the White House is seeking to slip two policy riders into a huge omnibus spending bill. One rider would reverse the recent court ruling that threw out EPA's inadequate radiation safety standards. The other would grant free access to a $15 billion special fund for nuclear waste disposal that so far has required the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to seek congressional approval for expeditures.
There have been no hearings or debate on the proposal to overturn the court's decision on the EPA's health standards for Yucca Mountain. To hastily tack such a rider on a must-pass appropriations bill without debate or discussion makes a mockery of the democratic process. It also violates President Bush's vow to make decisions regarding Yucca Mountain on science rather than politics.
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TAKE ACTION! Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard toll-free at 1-800-839-5276 and ask to speak with your Senators. Tell him or her NOT to lower radiation safety standards at Yucca Mountain - especially without any hearings or debate on the issue.
Also tell your Senators not to take the Nuclear Waste Fund "off-budget," and that spending from the fund by DOE should be subject to full oversight through the Congressional appropriations process.
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BACKGROUND
On July 9, 2004, thanks to a lawsuit filed by Public Citizen, along with the State of Nevada and several other environmental groups, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the EPA's 10,000-year compliance period for radiation releases from the site was illegal because it failed to conform with recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). NAS recommended that whatever standard EPA eventually developed should extend through the period of "peak dose" from the site, estimated by the Department of Energy to be several hundred thousand years in the future. Clearly, 10,000 years would not protect the health of future generations.
The effect of the ruling is that EPA must develop new standards that would encompass the period of peak dose. DOE is then be required to alter its repository design to meet those new, stricter standards. This process should be allowed to go forward.
For more information on the court case, visit: http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1745
For more information about the importance of the radiation protection
standard, visit:
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_waste/hi-level/yucca/articles.cfm?ID=12459
To learn more about taking Yucca Mountain appropriations off-budget, see the Public Citizen June 15 letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee: http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_waste/hi-level/yuc
ca/articles.cfm?ID=11819