Illinois' Sen.Kirk's Letter on Nuclear Spent Fuel at Yucca Mt.
By Ellen Cannon
On November 18, Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) sent a strong letter in support of Yucca Mountain being the permanent repository of nuclear waste. The letter, signed by 31 Senators was sent to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate and House subcommittees urging them to support the bipartisan, House passed language which funds the storage of nuclear waste inside Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. Senator Kirk has made establishing a permanent storage facility for America’s nuclear waste a critical issue for all states and especially critical for Illinois.
Illinois has the largest number of nuclear power plants, eleven, in the United States. According to Kirk, “Currently the spent fuel is stored in dry casks and pools near urban areas and sources of drinking water.” At the Zion Nuclear Station, 1,100 tons of waste is stored just 200 yards away from the Lake Michigan shore line and contamination of Lake Michigan would result in a catastrophe to the Great Lakes Region.
According to nuclear watchdog experts Dave Kraft, director of the Nuclear Energy Information Service and Howard Lerner, head of the Illinois Environmental Policy Center, there is serious concern regarding Illinois nuclear power plants which are largely owned by Exelon. They note that the Mark I reactors located in Illinois are more than 40 years old. According to Kraft and Lerner, “The Mark I boiling water reactors are flawed because spent fuel rods are stored above the reactor containment chamber instead of at the ground level, and the containment system around the reactor is too small which could allow pressure to build quickly in the event of an emergency.(www.usatoday.netdiscustom/gci/insidepage)
The New Madrid fault line, running across five states including Illinois creates potential nuclear safety concerns for Illinois residents as well. The fault line includes southern Illinois near Cairo, not far from the Clinton nuclear power plant as well as the Wabash Valley seismic zone which runs along the southern Illinois and Indiana border. Exelon chairman, John Rowe , states that he is confident that the Exelon run power plants are built to withstand earthquakes and underscores the fact that the damage to the nuclear plants in Japan came not from earthquakes alone, but from the tsunami , which will not occur in Illinois. Expert studies, along with what we have learned about the multiple disasters simultaneously occurring at the Fukushima plant make it essential for Illinois and all states to be very concerned.
Leading the Senate on this issue, Senator Kirk wrote to Chairmen Feinstein and Frelinghuysen and Ranking members Alexander and Visclosky urging their support of the language of the House passed Energy Appropriations bill.
His letter stated, “When the Executive Branch and Congress chose Yucca Mountain as a nuclear storage facility in 2002, the U.S. had 47,000 metric tons of waste located across America. With 9 years of further delay, the U.S. is now home to 38% more nuclear waste totaling over 65,000 metric tons stored in 75 temporary locations not designed as permanent facilities or locations for radioactive materials. Dozens of these are close to cities, suburbs, and critical ecosystems essential to the drinking water for millions of Americans.”(Letter by Senator Mark Kirk, 11/18/11)
Kirk underscores the waste and inefficiency by the government on this critical public health and safety issue.
He w'rites, “To date, taxpayers paid over $14 billion to select and study the Yucca facility. Because the federal government failed to take ownership of nuclear waste as originally promised, the government paid an additional $956 million in legal fees and payments. The Department of Energy projects taxpayers will have to pay an additional $15 billion in such fees by 2020, with a further cost of $500 million annually if a decision is delayed any further. The House wisely provided the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with $20 million, $10 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund and $10 million from the DOE departmental administration fund, and the Department of Energy with $25 million to continue Yucca’s license application and technical review. In addition, the House directed the Commission to preserve all documentation and data with regard to Yucca.”
According to Senator Kirk, “We should apply the lessons from Fukushima to protect the people of Illinois. (Kirk addressed NRC on Task Force Report, 7/29/11)
Kirk’s letter on spent fuel resulted in the following Senators signing onto the letter: James Inhofe, Mike Crapo, Charles Grassley, John Boozman, Jeff Sessions, Lisa Murkowski, Roy Blunt, David Vitter, John Barrasso, Daniel Coats, Richard Lugar, Michael Enzi, Lindsey Graham, Tom Coburn, James Risch, Susan Collins, John Thune, Marco Rubio, Jon Kyl, John Hoeven, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Pat Roberts, Mike Johanns, Ronald Johnson, Jim Demint, Johnny Isakson, Olypia Snow, John Cornyn, Bob Corker, Saxby Chambliss.
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