Skull Valley

February 24, 2005

NRC Licensing Board Ruled in Favor of Nuke Dump Skull Valley

*Please forward to your lists- Thank you*

This Alert endorsed by Ohngo Gavdadeh Devia (the local Skull Valley Goshute Shoshone tribal grassroots group) and the Indigenous Environmental Network.

ALERT! NRC LICENSING BOARD TODAY RULED IN FAVOR OF GRANTING A LICENSE TO THE PRIVATE FUEL STORAGE DUMP ON NATIVE LAND IN UTAH.

SIGN ON TO OPPOSE THIS PROJECT!

Culminating a seven-year process, an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board today (February 24, 2005) ruled in favor of granting a license to the proposed Private Fuel Storage (PFS) high-level radioactive waste dump in Utah. Opening of this dump would initiate the transportation of thousands of casks of high-level radioactive waste across the nation, putting millions of people in jeopardy of a Mobile Chernobyl from an accident or terrorist attack.

The letter below, urging the NRC Commissioners to reject the PFS license application, will be sent to the NRC Commissioners in early March. Please sign on to this letter, by sending your name, organization, city and state to kevin@nirs.org by 5 pm, Thursday, March 3. Thanks for your help!

Information and Resource Service * Public Citizen * Shundahai Network

March, 2005

Re: Private Fuel Storage, LLC application for commercial irradiated nuclear fuel "interim" storage site at the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah

Dear Commissioners Diaz, Jaczko, Lyons, McGaffigan and Merrifield,

As national, regional, and local environmental and public interest organizations, we urge you not to approve the license application by Private Fuel Storage, LLC (PFS) to open an "interim storage site" for commercial irradiated nuclear fuel at the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah.

The need for PFS is far from clear, given approvals for on-site dry cask storage at a growing number of reactors, and the fact that true consolidation of waste is not possible as long as nuclear utilities continue to produce it. The proposal is also plagued by many problems, and its location poses unacceptable risks. The facility has no contingency plan for faulty containers, the storage/transport containers are of questionable structural integrity, and there is an increasing risk that PFS could well become de facto permanent storage. The plan also raises serious transportation safety concerns, and is beset with environmental justice violations.

In short, the proposal is neither safe, sound, nor just.

Skull Valley is not an appropriate site for storing irradiated nuclear fuel. The adjacent complex of Hill Air Force Base and the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) represents one of the biggest and busiest bombing ranges in the country, with thousands of over-flights annually posing the risk of accidental crashes into PFS. The stray missile which struck the scientific research station on the reservation in the 1990's, and the Genesis satellite crash into the UTTR last September, for instance, show the potential dangers of storing 44,000 tons of highly radioactive waste next to such active military facilities.

PFS also plans no pool or hot cell on-site, and thus would lack any waste repacking capability in the event of an emergency. If storage casks fail for any reason - human error during shipping or handling, natural disaster, accident, act of sabotage, faulty casks, or gradual corrosion - it would be difficult to adequately address the problem and prevent radioactivity from leaking into the soil, water, and air.

Oscar Shirani, former Commonwealth Edison/Exelon lead quality assurance inspector and nuclear safety whistleblower, has questioned the structural integrity of the Holtec casks proposed for PFS. He cites numerous major quality assurance violations in the manufacture of the storage/transport containers. Cask defects would not only raise the risk of irradiated fuel degradation and increased container vulnerability during storage at Skull Valley, but also of a potentially catastrophic radioactivity release during transport due to a severe accident or terrorist attack.

As it is, PFS's transportation plan, or lack thereof, is very disconcerting. PFS would dramatically increase unnecessary transportation and handling of high-level waste. Despite PFS's assurances that it is only "interim" storage, its lack of waste repackaging contingencies and DOE's reluctance to accept PFS wastes at Yucca Mountain, as discussed below, all combine to raise the specter of irradiated nuclear fuel eventually being sent back thousands of miles to the reactors from which it originated. This would multiply the distances high-level waste is shipped, and escalate the risks of public and worker exposure, severe accidents, and terrorist attacks. It would also increase further stress and damage to the irradiated nuclear fuel, making future handling, transport, and long term isolation from the environment much more troublesome.

It is ironic that NRC would consider granting PFS an operating license, and thus permission to begin shipments, even before its Package Performance Study (PPS) is completed, a point raised by a number of our organizations during the public comment period on the PPS. Rushing the process, and using casks with only minimal testing and planning, is of concern to many communities along the transportation routes.

John Parkyn, PFS chairman and CEO, has publicly stated that PFS would train emergency responders along the routes to Skull Valley, however, PFS has not yet demonstrated the financial or technical capability to deliver on that promise. On February 7, at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fiscal Year 2006 budget unveiling, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management director Margaret Chu stated that Nuclear Waste Policy Act section 180(c) funding to states for emergency response preparation would not even begin until five years before high-level radioactive waste shipments to Yucca Mountain. If the U.S. federal government requires such a long advance time, how could PFS privately provide such training before shipments would begin as early as 2007? Given the withdrawal from the PFS consortium by member companies such as American Electric Power/Indiana-Michigan Power, and the reduced investment by Southern California Edison, it is unlikely PFS could meet its basic commitments, let alone pay for emergency responder training and equipment all across the U.S.

The "interim" nature of the project is also questionable. Assurances have been given by PFS (and NRC staff in the proposal's Environmental Impact Statement) that irradiated fuel would remain at Skull Valley for no more than 40 years before transfer to Nevada for permanent burial. Last October, however, U.S. Energy Department Yucca Mountain Project transport director Gary Lanthrum told the Salt Lake Tribune that the Yucca Mountain Project would simply not accept irradiated nuclear fuel from PFS, as that would violate the terms of DOE's Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel, which requires DOE to only accept uncanistered fuel directly from nuclear utilities at reactor sites. Since PFS would not meet these requirements, it could very well lead to de facto permanent "disposal" of 4,000 casks of high-level radioactive waste above ground in Skull Valley.

For NRC to approve PFS at this time by assuming that Yucca Mountain would take the wastes after 40 years contradicts Gary Lanthum's statement, and also suggests that NRC is predisposed to approve DOE's Yucca Mountain license application even before the proceedings have begun.

This is very troubling and ignores ongoing, serious uncertainties surrounding the Yucca Mountain Project's future. In addition, even if the Yucca Mountain repository does open, it is technically and legally limited to 63,000 metric tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel. DOE projects that the total amount of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel generated in the U.S. will double to over 105,000 metric tons in the decades to come. This means that even if Yucca Mountain opens, PFS could very well turn into the de facto permanent overflow zone for excess waste.

Finally, on its face, the storage or disposal of highly radioactive waste on a tiny, poverty-stricken Native American community that did not even benefit from the nuclear generated electricity also raises significant environmental justice concerns. The existing leadership crisis at Skull Valley only exacerbates such concerns. There is a long-running dispute over the legitimacy of the tribal leadership that supports PFS. The disputed Tribal Chairman, Leon Bear -- the primary proponent for PFS -- has been indicted on federal charges of embezzlement of tribal funds as well as tax evasion. Tribal members who oppose PFS claim they have been severely intimidated and harassed, and allege that irregularities such as bribery and extortion have been used to secure support for PFS within the tribe.

These are very shaky foundations upon which to build dry cask storage for 44,000 tons of commercial irradiated nuclear fuel, nearly 80% of what currently exists in the U.S. The Skull Valley Goshute Indian community seems to have suffered significantly from the PFS proposal long before the first shipment of irradiated nuclear fuel has even arrived.

We urge you to deny the PFS license request. Storing irradiated nuclear fuel at the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation is not a safe, sound, nor just solution to our country's high-level radioactive waste problem.

Sincerely,

Michael Mariotte, Executive Director, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Washington, D.C.

Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, Washington, D.C

Pete Litster, Executive Director, The Shundahai Network, Salt Lake City, Utah

Utah tribe's nuclear waste plan dealt big setback

In a major victory for the state of Utah, federal regulators on Monday blocked plans to store up to 44,000 tons of nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation.

Citing potential risks from a nearby military base, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled against a consortium of eight private companies known as Private Fuel Storage (PFS). The group wants to ship radioactive material to the reservation with the tribal chairman's consent but three administrative law judges said it was possible that an airplane might crash into the waste repository.

"[W]e find that there is enough likelihood of an F-16 crash into the proposed facility that such an accident must be deemed 'credible,'" Michael C. Farrar, chairman of the three-judge panel, wrote in the 220-page document. "The result is that the PFS facility cannot be licensed without that safety concern being addressed."

The decision by the board, an independent judicial arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), is not final and can be appealed. PFS was also given the option of convincing the Air Force to modify its flight patterns or demonstrating that the casks being used to store the highly radioactive fuel can withstand a plane crash.

But since the Secretary of the Air Force has indicated that changes are unlikely and PFS has yet to offer evidence on the second scenario, Utah officials and politicians took the decision as a win.

"I just don't think PFS has adequately addressed safety and security concerns involving this facility," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), one of the many opponents. "Frankly, I question whether they will ever be able to ensure that the proposed site will be safe to store nuclear waste, considering the location."

The tiny tribe, which has less than 200 members, has been thrust in the national spotlight ever since chairman Leon Bear signed a lease with PFS to accept the waste. Terms of the agreement, which has been approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, are not known but could be a financial windfall for the reservation, where unemployment runs as high as 70 percent.

The facility would occupy a small portion of the tribe's 18,000-acre reservation, where fewer than 50 live today. The site, however, is about 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, prompting fears of spills, accidents and plane crashes.

Up until the crash issue was considered, regulators rejected most objections raised. Terrorist threats weren't evaluated specifically for the PFS site but by the NRC in general, the board noted in its ruling.

Some members of the tribe oppose the repository. The NRC refused to get involved in the dispute The BIA played the role of a mediator when rival factions, one against the site, claimed power but Bear eventually resumed power.

PFS said it was "disappointed" with the decision. One of the companies involved is Xcel Energy, which operates a nuclear facility next to the Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota. Xcel is seeking permission to keep more waste on site, a request the tribe opposes.

Federal law mandates that the federal government accept waste from the nation's nuclear facilities. Yucca Mountain in Nevada, located on traditional Western Shoshone land not ceded by treaty, is destined to be the single repository but won't open until at least 2010. Area tribes oppose that project along with officials and politicians in Nevada.

Get the Decision:
In the Matter of PRIVATE FUEL STORAGE, LLC, Docket No. 72-22-ISFSI (March 10, 2003)
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/adjudicatory/pfs-decision.pdf

Relevant Links:

• The Skull Valley Goshute Tribe - http://www.skullvalleygoshutes.org
• Private Fuel Storage - http://www.privatefuelstorage.com
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission - http://www.nrc.gov
• No High Level Waste, Utah Department of Environmental Quality - www.eq.state.ut.us/no_high_level_waste

Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Statement:
Yucca Mountain and Private Fuel Storage at Skull Valley

Citizens Awareness Network –
“The Peoples Summit on High-Level Radioactive Waste”,
Wesleyan University Middletown, Connecticut

The Indigenous Environmental Network, which is a network of 200 Indigenous organizations, traditional societies, and communities across North America remain opposed to any United States legislation, federal or state action, corporate and private or public activity that would allow the transportation, storage or production of spent nuclear fuel, high-level nuclear waste, and low-level radioactive waste within the traditional homelands of Turtle Island, otherwise known as the United States, Canada and Mexico. As Indigenous peoples of this Turtle Island, we are rightfully speaking out as the original caretakers of this vast land that has sustained our tribes for thousands of years. We speak out as the older brothers and older sisters to our younger brothers and younger sisters that have migrated and settled into this continent we call Turtle Island. Please listen to our words.

During the past twelve years, the Indigenous Environmental Network has witnessed our tribal grassroots, elders, youth, and tribal leadership from throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico - in what we describe as Turtle Island - instructing us to remain strong in defense and protection of our sacred Mother Earth and all our relations. The concept of “all our relations” includes all life, all colors of human and consideration of those yet to be born. Because of this we express our total opposition to the unsustainable energy plan of nuclear power and its devastating impacts and deadly effects on our communities.

The nuclear industry has waged an undeclared war against our Indigenous peoples and Pacific Islanders that has poisoned our communities worldwide. For more that 50-years, the legacy of the nuclear chain, from exploration to the dumping of radioactive waste has been proven, through documentation, to be genocide and ethnocide and a deadly enemy of Indigenous peoples. The ancestral lands of the Indigenous peoples in the United States has been used for testing nuclear weapons, experimenting with biological and chemical warfare agents, incinerating and burying hazardous wastes, and mining uranium. United States federal law and nuclear policy has not protected Indigenous peoples, and in fact has been created to allow the nuclear industry to continue operations at the expense of our land, territory, health and traditional ways of life. This system of genocide and ethnocide policies and practices has brought our people to the brink of extinction. This disproportionate toxic burden – called environmental racism - has culminated in the current attempts to dump much of the nation’s nuclear waste in the homelands of the Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin region of the United States. This action does not provide homeland security to our Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples have already made countless sacrifices for this country’s nuclear programs

The Indigenous Environmental Network opposes the recent decision of the United States President George W. Bush designating Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the country's official repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste. This is a wrong decision. Based upon scientific studies, Yucca Mountain is not a suitable site for a nuclear waste repository. The site has geologic faults and official computer models used to assess site suitability are riddled with uncertainties. Federal environmental regulations have been ignored and changed several times to accommodate this site, thus abandoning protections for drinking water.

According to the spiritual leaders and tribal elders of the Indigenous tribes of Western Shoshone and Paiute, the Yucca Mountain is sacred with the regional area having deep cultural and historical value to their peoples. President W. Bush and many leaders of Congress do not respect these deep spiritual values and cultural life-ways that have sustained the Indigenous peoples of this region since time immemorial. In the eyes of Indigenous peoples that follow the traditional teachings of our tribal ways, this President and people in Congress do not have a heart of love and compassion for Life and have clouded minds that put money above the health and safety of people and all Life.

If the Yucca Mountain site is approved by Congress, it will store a total of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste, most of it spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The spent fuel, which will remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years, is now stored at dozens of power plant sites around the country.

If Congress allows the Yucca Mountain site to be approved, it would begin the largest nuclear waste transportation campaign in history, possibly endangering residents in 44 states, thousands of towns and cities, and tribal territories. The United States Department of Energy predicts that there will be nuclear waste accidents occurring during this transportation campaign with lives, health, and properties of citizens living and working along transportation routes endangered by accidents or incidents. Roads, rails, and waterways in 44 states would become zones of terror for dangerous radioactive waste shipments en route to Yucca Mountain. More than 40,000 tons of this waste will be containing hundreds of tons of plutonium, the stuff from which nuclear weapons are made from.

Related to this country’s lack of a nuclear waste storage plan, the Indigenous Environmental Network furthers its opposition to the actions of Private Fuel Storage (PFS), a corporate consortium of 8 commercial nuclear utilities, proposing to transport 40,000 metric tons of high-level radioactive spent fuel waste across the country to an interim storage facility on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation in Utah. The Indigenous Environmental Network declares PFS actions as a form of economic blackmail and corporate oppression on a small Indigenous community of near 75 adult voting members that have experienced decades of toxic exposures from Department of Defense experiments with toxic and biological warfare and failed United States governmental policies that have created poverty and high unemployment among the Skull Valley Goshute. PFS is another example of the nuclear industry gambling with the public health and safety of the Goshute tribal members, the people of Utah and all citizens that reside along the vast transportation routes of this country.

The United States government has a long history of abrogating treaties entered into by the Indigenous tribes of this country and the United States. If Congress approves Yucca Mountain for a nuclear waste dump, it will be another attack on the treaty rights of the Western Shoshone. Western Shoshone Nation of Newe Sogobia, which extends from Idaho to Southern California, covers much of Nevada. Recognition of Shoshone sovereign territory was formalized by the United States government when it signed the Treaty of "Peace and Friendship" of Ruby Valley in 1863 that guaranteed incoming settlers and military personnel safe passage through the Western Shoshone (Newe) land. These territorial boundaries under international law hold the same significance as those of Canada or Mexico. The Organization of American States (OAS) has repeatedly upheld Shoshone claims against the United States. The Western Shoshone is fighting to protect their lands, including the sacred Yucca Mountain. The Shoshone have claims against the United States for land that was stolen and illegally occupied in violation of the Treaty of Ruby Valley of 1863. Although extensive litigation has taken place, the United States has never to this day been able to show a document to back its current claim of ownership of this land. This Treaty is one of the few treaties made between the United States and Indigenous nations that did not cede any land.

Although the many Indigenous peoples in our vast network are varied in language and beliefs, we have the common ground of being Indigenous peoples who have no desire to give up the traditional laws that the Creator gave us. We have no desire to accept the deadly, unsustainable ways the colonial government and nuclear industry is trying to force upon us. We are not asking anyone else to accept our ways, however, we are exercising our right to live our sustainable lifestyles, practice our culture, conduct our ceremonies, and raise our children in a land that is clean, safe and healthy for all our relations.

The Indigenous Environmental Network stands in solidarity with many concerned non-Indigenous citizens and organizations to stop this pattern of abusing our natural environment. Every living being, every creature and every plant has a right to a healthy, sustainable, equitable, and safe environment. To meet these needs, all communities must have a viable and sustainable economic base that protects the diversity of our communities. Nuclear waste jeopardizes the most basic human right, which is a clean environment. We commit to end the cycle of abuse that has been initiated by our government, nuclear industry and corporations.

The Indigenous Environmental Network recommends:

1. Congress should do what is morally and ethically right and uphold Nevada Governor Guinn's veto of President Bush's approval of the Yucca Mountain project.

2. Private Fuel Storage member utilities should immediately withdraw from the PFS consortium so as not to be implicated in such a dangerously flawed program and a program that could violate the human rights of tribal members of the Skull Valley Goshute.

3. United State citizens must organize to stop the Department of Energy and Private Fuel Storage from transporting and storing nuclear waste across the country to Yucca Mountain, located within the traditional homelands of the Newe Sogobia and Paiute peoples, and Skull Valley Band of Goshute.

4. United State citizens must oppose the generation of more nuclear waste by demanding a moratorium on the building of new nuclear power plants, a moratorium against re-commissioning old nuclear power plants and demanding the phase-out of current nuclear power plants. The continued production of all levels of radioactive waste and transportation to either an interim or permanent repository does nothing to solve the nuclear waste problem in our country.

5. United States citizens, the government and the nuclear industry must accept responsible for the nuclear waste that is generated every day. We call for state and federal action to be made for on-site storage of spent nuclear fuel. On-site at or near reactor above-ground monitored retrievable dry cask storage technology can be used to safely and economically store high-level radioactive wastes on site for at least 100 years or until alternative technology is found to safely dispose this radioactive waste that normally will remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years.

6. The United States, the nuclear industry and all parties responsible, ensure for the proper clean up of toxic and radioactive contamination on Indigenous lands, all people of color and disenfranchised communities of this country, including victims compensation for all citizens exposed to radiation contamination from nuclear industry activities and militarization.

7. Governments, including tribal, state, national and international, to do whatever possible to stop all uranium exploration, mining, milling, conversion, testing, research, weapons and other military production, use, and waste disposals onto and into Mother Earth.

8. Congress increase research and development and funding allocations for the utilization of sustainable and alternative clean renewable energy such as solar, wind, and appropriate technologies that are consistent with our natural laws and respect for the natural world (environment).

9. We particularly call upon tribal governments and inter-tribal organizations to measure their responsibilities to our peoples, not in terms of dollars, but in terms of maintaining our spiritual traditions, and assuring our physical, mental, spiritual well being. It is our responsibility to assure the survival of all future generations and be true caretakers for our Mother Earth.

10. We demand for the United States government, the nuclear industry and all private sectors that benefited from the legacy of perpetrating nuclear colonialism upon our Indigenous peoples to pay up, in the form of developing tribal “just transition” programs for sustainable economic development and education and training for the Indigenous tribal nations that have been the target of these nuclear waste programs and the legacy of nuclear colonialism.

11. Congress appropriate funding to tribes for capacity building and development of clean renewable energy projects within tribal utility infrastructures.

12. Last, but not least, we call upon the United States to honor all treaty rights, agreements and executive orders entered into with the Indigenous peoples of this country.

• from: Public Citizen
  Nuclear Security and the Proposed Yucca Mountain High-level Waste Dump: Debunking the Myth
  

  December 2001

  Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, some long-time supporters of the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain have tried to claim that the project is necessary in order to protect against the new terrorist threat. They say that Yucca Mountain is the most secure location to store the nation's high-level nuclear waste.

  Yucca Mountain, located about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, is the only site being considered as a potential repository for 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste from DOE weapons sites and commercial nuclear power plants across the country. Despite numerous unresolved technical, environmental and policy issues, the pro-nuclear Bush administration appears committed to pursuing the project, and Energy Secretary Abraham is expected to formally recommend the Yucca Mountain site in early 2002. However, the proposal faces an uncertain future in Congress.

  The inherent safety risks of nuclear power and the dangers of nuclear waste are indeed concerning. But in seeking solutions, it s important to separate myth from reality.

  * * *

  Myth: The proposed repository would consolidate U.S. nuclear waste in one location.

  Fact: Freshly irradiated nuclear fuel is thermally and radioactively too hot to handle and must be stored on site in a "cooling pool" for at least five years before it can be transported. This means that, even if a repository opens, there will be at least five years worth of nuclear waste (100 150 tons) stored on site at each operating reactor.

  Furthermore, the proposed Yucca Mountain repository could not contain all the waste that U.S. nuclear reactors will generate in their licensed lifetimes. Repository capacity is capped at 77,000 tons, with 10% designated for DOE defense waste, whereas the current fleet of commercial reactors alone will generate a projected 88,000 tons of waste. Nuclear industry proposals to extend the operating lifetimes of existing reactors and construct new ones would result in yet more waste in excess of the proposed repository s capacity.

  Myth: The proposed repository would be a more secure site.

  Fact: More waste would be stored above ground at Yucca Mountain than at any nuclear power plant. This would introduce new nuclear threats to the State of Nevada, which currently does not generate nuclear power or store high-level nuclear waste. Repository design proposals feature massive, exposed surface facilities, which would establish a larger, highly vulnerable and potentially more devastating target for attack nearby the major population center of Las Vegas.

  Myth: Storing nuclear waste at a repository would reduce the number of people exposed to its risks.

  Fact: Not only would the proposed repository introduce new nuclear risks to the residents of Nevada, transporting high-level radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain would threaten the health and safety of people all across the country. Terrorist experts agree that moving targets are difficult to defend. Furthermore, transporting nuclear waste is inherently dangerous because it elevates the risk of release and disperses this risk to areas where emergency response personnel may lack the capacity to effectively respond to a radiation incident.

  Routing projections indicate that Yucca Mountain shipments could pass through as many as 45 states, within half a mile of 50 million Americans. A severe transportation accident or terrorist attack could have catastrophic environmental and health consequences and result in billions of dollars in damages.

  Myth: The proposed repository would resolve security concerns at nuclear power plants.

  Fact: The tragic events of September 11, 2001, have raised serious concerns about safety and security at U.S. nuclear facilities. Many cannot even meet the current security requirements widely considered to be inadequate: nearly half have failed to repel small groups of intruders on foot in "force-on-force" exercises conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Additionally, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recognized that the containment buildings housing nuclear reactors are not designed to withstand an attack of the scale witnessed at the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. As long as nuclear power plants continue to operate, they will be vulnerable. The proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain would do little to address these risks while introducing many others.

  
  
• Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, Utah. nuclear waste storage.
  
  

• Private Fuel Storage L.L.C. (PFS) - Skull Valley, Utah http://www.downwinders.org/utah.html#Private Fuel

PREHEARING CONFERENCE ON GOSHUTE ISFSI-NRC ANNOUNCEMENT

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has scheduled a prehearing conference beginning January 27 in Salt Lake City on the application of Private Fuel Storage Limited Liability Company (PFS) to possess and store spent nuclear reactor fuel in a facility located on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Skull Valley, Utah, about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

The prehearing conference, which is open to the public for observation, will begin at 10:00 a.m. MST in the Moot Courtroom of the University of Utah College of Law, 332 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City. It will continue, until completed, at the same location, subsequently beginning each day at 9:00 a.m., for several days if needed.

The NRC received petitions for a hearing or to be made a party to any hearing that is held from the following: the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians; Ohngo Gaudadeh Devia; Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation and David Pete; Castle Rock Land and Livestock, L.C., Skull Valley Company, LTD., and Ensign Ranches of Utah, L.C.; and the State of Utah.

During the prehearing conference, the Licensing Board will hear arguments on whether petitioners who are seeking a hearing have formal legal standing to be heard and whether the contentions various petitioners have submitted are admissible. In ruling on the petitions, the Licensing Board will consider the nature of each petitioner's right under the Atomic Energy Act to be made a party to the proceeding; the nature and extent of the petitioner's property, financial, or other interest in the proceeding; and the possible effect of any order that may be entered in the proceeding on the petitioner's interest.

If any of the petitioners subsequently is found to have standing and to have submitted one or more litigable contentions, the Board will conduct a hearing on those contentions at a later time. If a hearing is held, the Board will provide an opportunity for members of the public to submit written comments or, if appropriate, to make brief oral presentations (known as "oral limited appearance statements") on the issues.

Licensing Board members are G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chairman; Dr. Jerry R. Kline; and Dr. Peter S. Lam.

(NOTE TO EDITORS: The use of tape recorders and cameras in the prehearing conference room is permitted, as long as their physical installation and presence does not interfere with the proceeding, subject to the following conditions: cameras must remain stationary in a designated area, no additional lighting is permitted, and no additional microphones will be permitted outside the designated camera area.)

High Level Waste in Utah Native Lands?

In the Sunday, July 6, 1997 Salt Lake Tribune Leon D. Bear of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes stated concerning the proposed spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Skull Valley, Utah: "Despite our five years of intensive study on this issue, no one has been able to present one shred of scientific evidence that this facility would not be safe." Bear suggested that (Congressman) "Cook take time to learn the facts of the project in question and stop issuing slanderous, false statements." Perhaps it's time that Mr. Bear learn the facts about the dangers of spent fuel storage and transportation to the people of Utah. The following information is provided by the respected Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Radioactive Waste Project, 1424 16th Street NW, #601, Washington, DC 20036:

• More than 15,000 shipments to Utah could be made over the next 30 years. Each large train cask carries the long-lived radiological equivalent of 200 Hiroshima bombs. In terms of radioactivity, each fuel assembly contains 10 times the long-lived radioactivity released by the Hiroshima bomb.

• A person standing three feet from unshielded irradiated fuel would receive a lethal radiation dose in 10 seconds.

• Current cask fire standards do not reflect the possibility of a tanker fuel fire. A fire associated with a truck or rail accident increases the probability that radioactivity will be released. Fires occur in 1.6% of all truck and 1% of all train accidents. Shipping containers are designed to withstand a 1/2-hour fire at a temperature of 1475 F. But rail fires could burn for hours, sometimes for days, at temperatures considerably higher. Diesel fuel burns at 1850 F. Some materials burn twice as hot. The heat could vaporize some radioactive materials and sweep them up into the air. Persons downwind could inhale radioactive particulates and later develop cancer or genetic effects. On July 2, 1997 a collision between two trains in Kansas produced just such an intense diesel fire.

• Accidents will happen -- the Department of Energy expects at least 15 truck accidents yearly.

• New cask designs are more than twice as large as any cask used before, and they will be tested only by computer models, not under actual accident conditions

• Existing transport routes are designed for commerce and link major population centers; they are not designed for radioactive waste transportation.

• About 3/4 of the U.S. population could be affected by these shipments.

• Shipping containers are designed to withstand a crash into an immovable object at 30 miles per hour. Obviously Interstate trucks travel much faster than 30 m.p.h. Impact into a bridge abutment or falls off a bridge could easily exceed the design limits of the container.

• None of the containers presently used on highways and rails has been physically tested. These containers were designed and built in the 1960's and '70's. Waste containers have only been tested by computer or hand calculators. Before the flood gates open on nuclear shipments, the Department of Energy should at least require that the new generation of shipping containers presently proposed be actually physically tested, but the Department has no such plans.

• Mr. Bear does not consider the very real prospect of nuclear sabotage and terrorism. The recent bombings at the World Trade Center, Oklohoma City Federal Building, and the Atlanta Olympics point to this threat. What if an act of nuclear terrorism happened at our 2002 Winter Olympics to one of the 9 or 10 shipments that will travel through Salt Lake City each day?

Over 70 Native American tribes across the United States have declared their reservations "Nuclear Free Zones" and 17 tribes have rejected spent fuel dumps outright. Darelynn Lehto, the vice president of the Prairie Island Mdewankanton, testified before the Minnesota State Senate stating, "It is the worst kind of environmental racism to force our tribe to live with the dangers of nuclear waste simply because no one else is willing to do so." This same tribe rejected an offer from Northern States Power similar to the Goshute proposal and declared their tribal lands a "Nuclear Free Zone."

We wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Bear that the Skull Valley Goshutes have a right to business opportunities-but not at the expense of the rest of us! Downwinders
c/o Winston Weeks
239 E. So. Temple
Salt Lake City, Utah 84111
(801) 521-6128