COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Andrews County Commissioners asking for more community feedback about high-level nuclear waste
NewsWest 9 | 6/23/2021
Out in Andrews County, precinct one commissioner Kerry Pack is looking for some community opinions.
He wants more calls, more emails and more text messages from his constituents, telling him how they would feel if high-level nuclear waste were to come to Andrews to stay.
Residents already know what it's like living with low-level radioactive waste.
"WCS has done a lot for our community," Pack said. "We have built baseball fields, we've added on to our rodeo arena, several projects have happened. We've bought buses and ambulances."
From the 150-200 text messages, emails, phone calls and Facebook comments he's received so far, the majority of residents are against it.
However, there are pros and cons.
"The storing and all will be a lot like the storing that they do now, which is very high tech and a lot of engineers involved, and a lot of thought process goes into that," Pack said. There's also a financial benefit, but commissioners don't know exactly how much, since this would be the first time. "There's been concerns on the storage of it because this is high level," Pack said.
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NATIONAL CLEANUP WORKSHOP
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"CAPITALIZING ON A NEW ERA OF CLEANUP SUCCESS"
September 8-10, 2021
Hilton Alexandria Mark Center
Alexandria, Virginia
Register by July 6, 2021 for the Early Bird rate!
Join more than 700 attendees, including senior DOE officials, Congressional leaders, DOE contractors, and state, tribal and local government leaders for the largest EM-focused gathering in the D.C. area.
Scheduled sessions at this year's workshop include:
- A New Era for EM Cleanup
- Insights from Congress
- The Next Phase of EM Success
- Partnering with DOE on Priority Issues: Environmental Justice, Cleanup Engagement and Clean Energy Production
- Upcoming EM Acquisition Plans and Schedule
- Roundtable: Lessons Learned and Improving Project Performance
- Legislative Challenges and Opportunities for the EM Program
- Roundtable: The Future of Disposal
- The Future of the EM Workforce
- Roundtable: DOE Field Office Managers
- Congressional Staff Perspective
- Entering a New Era for Hanford Tank Waste
PLUTONIUM PITS
Feds sued over plan to build atomic weapons component factory in SC
The State | 6/29/2021
Four public interest groups sued the federal government Tuesday, seeking to stop construction of multi-billion dollar nuclear factories in South Carolina and New Mexico that would make components for new atomic weapons.
Savannah River Site Watch, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Tri Valley CARES and the Gullah Geechee Sea Island Coalition are seeking an extensive study, known as a programmatic environmental impact statement, to weigh the effects of new plants on the environment and people who live near them.
Federal officials have sought the new plants to update the nuclear arsenal, a prospect that project boosters say could provide 1,000 jobs at the Savannah River Site, the Aiken area weapons complex where a nuclear pit production factory would be located.
But critics say the promise of jobs isn’t worth the risk of environmental contamination or the cost, now estimated to be about $15 billion for the two plants. A new type of weapon that’s the main reason for expanding pit production is not needed, critics say. Plutonium pits are key ingredients in nuclear weapons.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday follows a threat in April by the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, a non-profit legal service, that the groups would take the government to court if the U.S. Department of Energy did not fully study the effects of building plutonium pit factories in the two states.
Read about DOE's High Level Waste Interpretation
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Interested in learning more? Read the ECA report “Making Informed Decisions on DOE's Proposed High Level Waste Definition” at www.energyca.org/publications
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ECA's new site profiles detail DOE's 13 active Environmental Management cleanup sites and national laboratories, highlighting their history, missions, and priorities. The profiles are a key source for media, stakeholders, and the public to learn more about DOE site activities, contractors, advisory boards, and their surrounding local
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