Stop a Mobile Chernobyl!

Here’s the nuclear power industry’s plan to deal with the ever-growing problem of deadly radioactive waste piling up at nuclear reactors: get it off their sites and send tens of thousands of hot casks on America’s highways and railways to one or more “temporary” unprotected sites located anywhere but on their property.

Sound like a serious plan? Of course not.

But some in Congress like the idea. Four members of the Senate Energy Committee have introduced S. 1240, which would include that plan as part of an overhaul of the nation’s radioactive waste laws. The first hearing on this bill was Tuesday, July 30, 2013 and the Committee is planning to vote on the bill in September.

Please tell Congress that “centralized interim storage” of radioactive waste—and the accompanying and completely unnecessary risk of a Mobile Chernobyl—is unacceptable. We need a permanent solution, not Fukushima Freeways.

The nuclear industry’s plan is nothing new. In fact, it’s the same plan they came up with 20 years ago, when I originally coined the term “Mobile Chernobyl.” The public rose in opposition, and President Clinton vetoed an “interim” storage bill passed by Congress. The Senate upheld his veto.

Now we have to do it again, and people power will make the difference. Please act now, and ask your friends and colleagues to act as well.

And if you’d like more background information, visit our Mobile Chernobyl website at http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/hlwtransport/mobilechernobyl.htm