Fighting High Level Nuclear Waste

Senator Stephenson explains that moving 4,000 casks of high-level nuclear spent fuel rods through Utah's urban corridor would provide multiple opportunities for terrorism.

He said it would be a sad irony if, just as nerve gas incineration is nearing completion, Utah was forced to replace the nerve agents with nuclear fuel rods.

From: Senator Howard Stephenson
To: Citizens in Senate District 11 and throughout Utah.
Subject: Your action is urgently needed.

Utahns have until May 8 to write letters urging the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to deny Private Fuel Storage a permit to bring Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods to Utah.

I sent a letter as State Senator on March 28 to hundreds of active citizens in Senate District 11 urging them to contact the BLM to prevent the storage of spent nuclear fuel rods (SNF) on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Tooele County.

The purpose of this email is to provide you an easy way to respond to the BLM in the event you have not done so already. This email also can be easily forwarded to your friends and neighbors to encourage them to also respond.

Private Fuel Storage (PFS) – a consortium of nuclear energy producers – has received a federal permit to store the SNF in Utah but PFS must first receive permission to cross BLM land to get the fuel to the reservation. BLM has opened a public comment period during which Utah citizens have a chance to express their concerns or their support. The public comment period ends May 8, 2006. We need to create a public record of opposition for the BLM to include in its decision-making process. This may be our last chance as a community to stop this waste from coming to Utah.

Depending on the measure used, SNF is thousands to millions of times more radioactive than anything which has been allowed to be stored in Utah. PFS seeks to store 44,000 tons of SNF in 4,000 casks in Skull Valley, not more than 50 miles from Utah’s population center. The Wasatch Front is downwind from the proposed storage site. Skull Valley is a tiny Indian Reservation only seven miles from the border of Dugway Proving Ground and just nineteen miles from the border of the Utah Test and Training Range. The casks are proposed to be unloaded from rail cars at an intermodal facility only a few yards north of I-80 – Utah’s only
east-west highway corridor. They would be loaded onto heavy-haul truck transports which would cross I-80 and travel 20 mph South on State Road 196, just West of the Stansbury Mountains. These transports are 150 to 180 feet long and 12 feet wide, making normal wide-load trucks look small. Only one cask could be moved at a time. SR 196 is a narrow two-lane public road varying from 20 to 24 feet in width, often without a shoulder.

The movement of these casks from their place of generation (nuclear reactors) to an unprotected, open-air central location in Utah near population centers and military operations is foolish. Opponents of PFS contend the movement of 4,000 casks would provide multiple opportunities for terrorists to use explosives to turn the casks into dirty bombs,
spreading high-level nuclear material in a wide area. The proximity of Skull Valley to military live-ordinance testing ranges provides additional potential for accidental explosion of casks.

The Environmental Impact Statement for the truck transport is premised on PFS hauling 100 to 200 casks per year. Thus, it will take 20 years to move the SNF casks to the PFS storage facility and then another 20 years to move the SNF casks back for reshipment to reactor sites for repacking and then, finally to Yucca Mountain.

The BLM Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the area in question currently states,

“Public land will not be made available for inappropriate uses such as storage or use of hazardous materials (munitions, fuel, chemicals, etc.) and live artillery firing.”

The BLM should uphold its own RMP and deny the PFS permit.

Please send your comments to Pam Schuller at the BLM by FAX (801) 977-4397, by email at pam_schuller@blm.gov or by letter to the following address:

Pam Schuller
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Salt Lake Field Office
2370 South 2300 West
Salt Lake City UT 84119

Share this message with others and urge them to contact the BLM and express their opposition to this permit. I have attached a copy of the letter I sent to the BLM as an example of what might be written.

You can find more information at the State of Utah's website.