To: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
CALL FOR SAFER STORAGE OF NUCLEAR WASTE IN OVER 80 USA CITIES
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering a proposed rule on the long-term storage of radioactive nuclear waste at reactor sites. Sign this petition to ask the NRC to require that radioactive waste be stored in much safer, more secure concrete and steel dry casks.
Why is this important?
Like me, over 40 million Americans live within 30 miles of a nucear waste storage site, and 116 million Americans live within 50 miles of a waste storage site. Sign this petition that tells the NRC to require that radioactive waste be stored in much safer, more secure concrete and steel dry casks. Also you can attend an NRC meeting by finding locations here: http://1.usa.gov/16kxqx1
Like the nuclear reactors themselves, spent nuclear fuel storage pools contain large amounts of radioactive material. An accident or terrorist attack resulting in a rapid loss of cooling water from a pool could lead to a fire and the release of a massive quantity of radiation—with potentially grave human, environmental, and economic consequences. These pools have become de facto nuclear waste storage sites. Rather than invest in dry casks, plant owners continue to fill them to well beyond what they were designed for, creating unnecessary risks for Americans. Simply put, spent fuel pools are overcrowded and incredibly dangerous if electricity "goes out."
Concrete and steel dry cask storage, on the other hand, are so much safer and do not require electricity because they are passively cooled by natural air flow. The dry casks at the Fukushima plant in Japan, for example, went relatively unscathed after the March 2011 disaster there. Independent experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists and elsewhere agree that radioactive waste that has cooled sufficiently should be transferred to dry casks. Even the Sierra Club said that "Overcrowding in irradiated/spent fuel pools is an unacceptable risk to the public. Hardened on-site casks should become the choice for storage." As the waste must eventually be transferred to dry casks in order to be shipped offsite, why not demand that this happen sooner rather than later and improve safety right now?
Like the nuclear reactors themselves, spent nuclear fuel storage pools contain large amounts of radioactive material. An accident or terrorist attack resulting in a rapid loss of cooling water from a pool could lead to a fire and the release of a massive quantity of radiation—with potentially grave human, environmental, and economic consequences. These pools have become de facto nuclear waste storage sites. Rather than invest in dry casks, plant owners continue to fill them to well beyond what they were designed for, creating unnecessary risks for Americans. Simply put, spent fuel pools are overcrowded and incredibly dangerous if electricity "goes out."
Concrete and steel dry cask storage, on the other hand, are so much safer and do not require electricity because they are passively cooled by natural air flow. The dry casks at the Fukushima plant in Japan, for example, went relatively unscathed after the March 2011 disaster there. Independent experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists and elsewhere agree that radioactive waste that has cooled sufficiently should be transferred to dry casks. Even the Sierra Club said that "Overcrowding in irradiated/spent fuel pools is an unacceptable risk to the public. Hardened on-site casks should become the choice for storage." As the waste must eventually be transferred to dry casks in order to be shipped offsite, why not demand that this happen sooner rather than later and improve safety right now?