Tennessee Is Not a Nuclear Dumping Ground

Submitted by Chris Lugo for ... on Fri, 2008/03/07 - 6:08pm.

Candidate Chris Lugo Speaks Out Against Nuclear Waste Transport and Asks "Why Are We Importing European Nuclear Waste to Tennessee?"

Nashville, TN: In a statement released from his Nashville office today, US Senate Candidate Chris Lugo asked why the federal government is considering allowing a private corporation to transport and process massive amounts of nuclear waste from Europe into Tennessee, "Why is the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considering allowing the company called 'Energy Solutions' to ship in nuclear waste to burn, melt, transport and dump right here in Tennessee? Since when did Tennessee become a dumping ground for European nuclear waste? I oppose the NRC issuing a permit to this corporation to pollute our state. It is bad enough that we have our own nuclear waste to deal with from years of nuclear weapons production as well as nuclear power generation. The federal government doesn't even know what to do with its own nuclear waste. Taking in nuclear waste from Europe to dump in the United States is simply unacceptable."

According to a release from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, EnergySolutions runs 2 commercial nuclear waste dumps in the US and incinerators, a metal melter and other "processing" facilities in Memphis and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. EnergySolutions is applying for a federal license to import 20,000 tons of radioactive waste into the US for processing including incineration, "recycling", transport and disposal. This nuclear waste from Italy would be burned, smelted, chopped up and process in Memphis and Oak Ridge, resulting in more radioactive emissions in those regions and creating more radioactive nuclear waste in Tennessee. Some of this waste could even be dumped in solid waste dumps in Tennessee.

Tennessee has a long history of resistance to becoming a nuclear dumping ground for private corporations. In Hartsville, Tennessee an organization called Louisiana Energy Services attempted to dump a uranium processing facility on that community in 2003. A grassroots organization called Citizens for Smart Choices organized a grassroots campaign to keep radioactive waste out of Hartsville and eventually won over the city council of Hartsville with a simple, common sense discussion about the environmental impact a uranium processing facility would have on the ecology of the region. In 2006, an organization coalesced in Johnson City, Tennessee to oppose the depleted uranium processing happening at Aerojet facilities in Irwin, Tennessee. For over twenty years, an organization called the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance has called for the cleaning up of the Oak Ridge bioregion, which has been severely impacted by the nuclear weapons complex facilities in the area.

"Tennesseans don't want nuclear waste polluting their water, air and soil. We want a healthy environment in which we can safely raise our families, grow our food, and enjoy the outdoors." Chris Lugo, a progressive candidate for the US Senate in Tennessee said that he is opposed to any further nuclear waste processing in Tennessee. "We need to tell the federal government that Tennessee is not a dumping ground for European nuclear waste. Tennessee is rich in natural resources, and we need to preserve our bioregion for future generations. Radioactive nuclear waste contaminates everything - the air, the soil, the water, plants, animals and people. Why would anyone think that it is a good idea to import nuclear waste from a foreign country into Tennessee?"

US Senate Candidate Chris Lugo is urging Tennesseans to write to the US Nuclear Regulator Commission to say NO to License Applications IW023 and XW013 which would permit the Energy Solutions corporation to transport and process nuclear waste in Tennessee. He is also urging people to vote for candidates this fall that will look out for the long-term interests of the environment, "We only have one planet, and only one Tennessee. I think it is clear to voters who will support the real interests of the environment."

For more information write to:

Nuclear Information and Resource Service
6930 Carroll Avenue Suite 340
Takoma Park MD 20912
301 270 6477 x 16
dianed@nirs.org Link...
Link...

Actions Needed:

*Comment to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to say NO to License
Applications Nos. IW023 and XW013 (Federal Register Volume 73, Number
28, 2/11/08)*
*Send copies of your comments to your Congressmembers and Senators and
to your State legislators /especially/ if you are in TN, UT, LA, SC and
states between and downwind.*
*Comment to NRC (secy@nrc.gov ) by March 12, 2008;
Contact NIRS (dianed@nirs.org ) to join requests
for hearing(s) and to intervene.*

Chris Lugo for US Senate
9 Music Sq So #164
Nashville, TN 37203
615-593-0304
chris4senate@gmail.com
Link...

( categories: )
In our backyard
Submitted by ma am on Sat, 2008/03/08 - 10:25am.

Chris, Thanks for bringing this up. This is a big deal to us here in East TN. Most of the processing of Italian waste would occur at Y12....as if Y12 doesn't already have enough waste.

Everyone should take the effort to comment on this. The end of the comment period is sometime in June.

Its not being processed at
Submitted by Jefferson (not verified) on Tue, 2008/05/20 - 1:18pm.

Its not being processed at Y-12 you idiot. Know what you are talking about before you speak.

Elmer_Gantry's picture
Tennessee: A Nuclear Dumping Ground For Sale
Submitted by Elmer_Gantry on Mon, 2008/03/10 - 9:42pm.

1) U.S. Rep. David Davis (TN-1,R; Johnson City) accepts October 2007 campaign donations from attroney representing Studsvik, Inc.

U.S. Rep. Davis entry on FCC record conceals actual donor's company name, location misleading:

DICAMILLO, JOSEPH
WILMETTE IL 60091
10/02/2007 500.00
STUDSZIK INC./COUNCIL
[FEC FILE NUMBER] 28930026490

***

Anti-incinerator petition circulates
Johnson City Press
Link...
By Jim Wozniak
Erwin Bureau Chief
jwozniak@johnsoncitypress.com

***

A Second Crisis in Radioactive Waste
The way things are going, low-level nuclear waste could end up in
everyone's backyard.
Link...
By Joseph DiCamillo Friday, August 17, 2007
Filed under: Government & Politics, Science & Technology

"A third option—the most environmentally-conscientious one—is for the
government to promote techniques that stabilize and minimize the volume of low-level waste prior to disposal. The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in 1981 issued a policy calling for increased attention to this option, but the Commission has done little to implement it. Those technologies can lengthen the life of disposal sites without the need for expansion as well as substantially reducing the possibility of contamination outside of disposal site boundaries. An effective market-based option available to the federal government is to end the practice, followed by some disposal sites and state governments, of price discrimination. This practice results in the disposal facilities charging higher rates and taxes for stabilized and compacted waste than for the same volume of untreated waste. As a result, the United States fails to use optimally our scarce disposal capacity.

>>>There is no more time to wait. The federal government must do everything possible to encourage or require the few existing disposal sites to stabilize and reduce the volume of low-level waste. And direct federal intervention is necessary to ensure that after June 2008, 28 states (housing 91 of the 104 reactors in the U.S.) can deposit their "Class B and C" waste in a designated disposal site, rather than leaving it scattered at power plants, universities, and hospitals. After the actions in Utah and South Carolina, the clock is ticking.

Joseph DiCamillo is the general counsel of Studsvik, Inc., a subsidiary of a Swedish firm providing nuclear technology and radiological services to the nuclear industry around the world."

*****

Washington Group Joint Venture Offers Promising Technology for
Treatment of Radioactive Waste
June 26, 2002
Link...

Boise, Idaho - Washington Group International, Inc., through its
Westinghouse Government Environmental Services Company subsidiary,
announced today that it has formed a joint venture with Studsvik, Inc.
to offer a promising, non-incineration thermal technology that could
significantly cut the cost and time to treat radioactive and hazardous
wastes throughout the United States Department of Energy complex.

The new company, THOR Treatment Technologies(SM), will capitalize on
the patented THOR(SM) Pyrolysis/Steam Reforming Technology developed by Studsvik and already utilized at its Erwin, Tennessee, facility to treat radioactive waste for the commercial nuclear industry.

"Our proven technology is well suited for the destruction, conversion,
or neutralization of certain constituents found in a broad range of
radioactive and other waste materials, especially the DOE's most
problematic and costly waste streams," said Tom Oliver, president of
Studsvik, Inc. and chairman of the joint venture's board of directors.

Washington Group and its Westinghouse Government Environmental
Services Company LLC bring to the joint venture several decades of
experience in all phases of work at DOE facilities across the country,
including Hanford, Savannah River, Oak Ridge, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, West Valley Demonstration Project, and Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site.

Washington Group provides a full spectrum of services from design
through construction, operation, and dismantlement of highly hazardous
materials and process facilities.

"The combination of the THOR(SM) technology and our extensive nuclear
facilities experience will provide the DOE with the option to cut years and billions of dollars from its cleanup mission," said Ralph DiSibio, president of Washington Energy and Environment.

"We're currently in the process of meeting with officials at several DOE facilities across the country who are interested in learning about innovative methods to accelerate cleanup and site closure," said John
McKibbin, president of THOR Treatment Technologies(SM). "We are proud
to be among the private sector businesses that have chosen to apply
their expertise to the nation's most pressing environmental cleanup
challenges."

Studsvik, Inc. is a subsidiary of Studsvik Holding, Inc., which is a subsidiary of the Swedish-owned company Studsvik AB. Studsvik AB is a high-technology company that has a leading position in the nuclear industry. Studsvik AB develops and markets products and services that help solve its customers' environmental, safety, and quality problems in connection with the use of nuclear technology.

Washington Group International, Inc., is a leading international engineering and construction firm. With more than 35,000 employees at work in 40 states and more than 30 countries, the company offers a full life-cycle of services as a preferred provider of premier science, engineering, construction, program management, and development in 14 major markets.

***
ANTITRUST CLAIMS: ENERGYSOLUTIONS' COMPETITORS BEING INTERVIEWED BY JUSTICE
Link...
Judy Fahys
07/13/2007
The Salt Lake Tribune

Competitors of EnergySolutions are being interviewed by the U.S. Justice Department about antitrust allegations being raised against the Salt Lake City-based company

The Weapons Complex Monitor, a newsletter of the nuclear cleanup industry, said federal investigators have spoken with at least two competing companies in the waste-treatment business. Perma-fix
Environmental Services Inc. is an Atlanta-based nuclear-waste processing company, and Studsvik Corp. is a Swedish company with two low-level waste processing facilities in Tennessee.

***

links:

Federal Election Commission
Link...

FEC Candidate and PAC/Party Summaries:
Link...

DAVIS, DAVID ID: H6TN01313 INCUMBENT
Link...

FEC - Individuals Who Gave To: DAVIS, DAVID
Link...

Center for Responsive Politics  lobbying@crp.org
Link...
[Rep. David Davis "edits" of FEC records are failing to be captured by
such internet databases]

***

"A Second Crisis in Radioactive Waste
The way things are going, low-level nuclear waste could end up in
everyone's backyard."
Link...
By Joseph DiCamillo Friday, August 17, 2007
Filed under: Government & Politics, Science & Technology

***

Studsvik
Link...

About Studsvik Inc.
Treatment of Low-Level Radioactive Waste in Erwin and Memphis, TN
Studsvik Processing Facility Erwin, LLC
Link...

***

Link...
Story published: 02-06-2007 • Print Story • E-mail Story to a Friend

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