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NUCLEAR
NEWS FOR LIFE
RADIATION |
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Not here, not now, not ever, vows opposition
Navajo Hopi
Observer News 12-9-97
By T.H. Lee
The Observer
The battle lines are drawn. The Flagstaff community has begun organizing to stop the shipment of high-level nuclear waste through Northern Arizona to a temporary storage site at Yucca Mountain beginning in 2001.
The shipments are anticipated if the Congress cannot sustain a promised presidential veto of legislation passed last June by the Senate and just a few weeks ago by the House of Representatives. The entire Arizona delegation voted in favor of the bills, S.104 and H.R.1270.
More than 60 people attended a meeting on the transportation issue at the Flagstaff Public Library on Thursday evening.
Two main points of consensus emerged early in the meeting. First, any risk involved in the transportation of nuclear waste through Northern Arizona is unacceptable because the effects of even a "small" accident are potentially devastating to the area. Second, transporting the waste to Yucca Mountain before a permanent repository is ready could only result in one of two outcomes: either the fact that the waste is already at Yucca Mountain will provide a compelling incentive for approving the permanent facility, whatever its safety problems, or the permanent storage facility will not be approved, and all of the waste will need to be moved again-and possibly travel through Northern Arizona a second time.
Other forceful arguments against the proposed shipments were also stated: There is no first-response team (medical and other personnel) trained to deal with an accident of this potentially huge magnitude; There is no place for even the 50,000 people in Flagstaff (let alone people in more rural areas) to go if an evacuation were necessary, and in poor weather, there would be no way to leave in any case; Any accident could affect the Grand Canyon, which would destroy the tourism on which the Northern Arizona economy so heavily depends. Several action items were proposed by participants:
Write, fax, or e-mail the Senators Kyl and McCain and Congressman Hayworth to voice opposition to the proposed shipment </B>and President Clinton to ask him to fulfill his promise to veto the legislation when it comes to him, probably in the early spring of 1998;
Establish strict health and safety requirements for the transportation of the waste and the development of emergency response strategies that the Department of Energy would have to comply with or contest in court;
Petition the Flagstaff City Council to declare Flagstaff a Nuclear Free Zone, a strategy that has been effective in stopping nuclear waste shipments in other parts of the country. However, according to the Council secretary on Friday morning, the issue is not on the Council's agenda for discussion at this time;
Inform local businesses of the potential economic effects of the plan on them in order to garner more support; and Direct action, if the shipments actually begin.
Volunteers will begin implementation of the first four action items
immediately. The next meeting of the group will be held December 18 at
7 p.m. at the Grand Canyon Trust, 2601 North Fort Valley Road, Flagstaff
(across from Northland Publishing). For directions, call (520) 774-7488.
Everyone is invited to attend. For more information, or to volunteer to
be part of this effort, contact Roxane George at (520) 774-6542.
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