Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

106 organizations urge Congress to oppose GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership) program and specifically GNEP activities in Piketon, Ohio

January 8th, 2007

Senate Majority Leader, the Honorable Harry Reid
Speaker of the House, the Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Senate Minority Leader McConnell
House Minority Leader Boehner
The Honorable Senator Voinovich
The Honorable Senator Brown
The Honorable Congressmember Denis Kucinich
The Honorable Congressmember Jean Schmidt
The Honorable Congressmember Zack Space
The Honorable Congressmember Charlie Wilson
The Honorable Congressmember Hobson
Senate Energy Committee Chair, the Honorable Jeff Bingaman
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair, the Honorable John Dingell
Senate Energy Committee Ranking Member, the Honorable Pete Domenici
House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member, Barton

Dear Member:

As we begin a new year of unified work for the benefit of our great nation, we ask your attention to a matter we find urgent. It has come to our attention that the Department of Energy and private groups acting under the names ePIFNI and SONIC are moving rapidly to bring our nation’s most dangerous radioactive waste to a rural community with important cultural heritage in Appalachian Ohio.

This community has been named as a grant recipient under the Department of Energy’s new Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). We, the undersigned groups, oppose GNEP variously on grounds of national security, local security, degradation of our obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, our responsibility for environmental and cultural resource stewardship, endangerment of public health, and because it will further hurt our stature of leadership in the world. Thus it is that we protest the award of any grant under the GNEP program. Nonetheless, we find that the Piketon site warrants immediate attention.

GNEP is currently in the initial stages of program development, prior to official engagement with the public participation portion of the National Environmental Policy Act. News from the Piketon, Ohio, area reveals that a plan to move high-level nuclear waste (irradiated fuel) from commercial nuclear power reactors to the Piketon facility is already well developed to the point that expensive infrastructure changes to the site for the accommodation of irradiated fuel shipments have already been accomplished.

The plan to centralize high-level nuclear waste from commercial nuclear power predates the GNEP proposal. The Private Fuel Storage plan on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah was such a project, until recently ruled inappropriate by the Department of the Interior.

Nonetheless, to do so under the auspices of the federal government, and Piketon is a US DOE site, is not provided for under current law.

As a community of concerned citizens and organizations nationwide, we work together to oppose centralized interim storage of commercial high-level radioactive waste – at any site. As time goes by, the values we share grow only stronger:

• Concern for a scientifically sound, sustainable basis for long-term disposition of
radioactive waste (Yucca Mountain does not meet this criterion)
• Concern for security of radioactive material and of any community that hosts it
• Recognition that the risks associated with the transport and centralization of irradiated fuel are only acceptable if moving the waste will greatly enhance the security and longterm sustainability of stewardship, as well as keep transport risks to a minimum To date, all proposals for the “temporary” centralization of commercial high-level radioactive waste have not met these criteria. Today, the ever increasing concern for security in our nation, all by itself, is a basis to oppose moving high-level radioactive waste to a temporary site. In addition, the storage site adds one more, even bigger “target,” since the operating reactor sites will continue to generate waste, and if plans are approved, generate even more. Temporary storage will always dictate additional transport if, or when a permanent site is chosen. If no permanent site is found, the temporary site will, by default, become a permanent dump.

It is a long history, over several decades, where all the so-called “temporary” storage sites have targeted low-income, often Native American communities, or lands sacred to Native Americans. Interim high-level storage is falsely sold as a jobs program to these poor communities, when the reality is that radioactive waste storage drives away more economic development than it brings.

Piketon is perhaps the worst example yet, near the very bottom of average income in Ohio, in one of Ohio’s richest and most sensitive ecological zones, and at the heart of Ohio’s complex of ancient Native American earthworks in the lower Scioto Valley, right on the ancient Scioto Trail.

If we preserve the status-quo and store waste for the near-term on nuclear utility sites, where it is generated, while not ideal, this at least ensures that multiple, corporate entities in diverse locations serve as interim hosts, and therefore collectively retain a stake in the quest for a permanent resolution. We urge that resources be used to increase safety and security for the waste where it is, pending a worthy long-term disposition. Whatever long-term solution for highlevel nuclear waste is ultimately found, resources should now be focused on finding it, not diverted into quick-fix schemes that will neither be quick nor temporary, nor in accord with democratic values. Any solution must meet the clear requirements of federal law which ensure public access to information and public participation.

We the undersigned oppose the Piketon centralized waste storage plan and any plan to centralize high-level radioactive waste (irradiated fuel). Shipments cannot be secured during transport; centralization of this deadly waste merely adds one more problem, while resolving none.

We join with the people around the Piketon site in opposing this bad plan, and urge your immediate investigation and action.

Sincerely,
Michael Mariotte
Nuclear Information and Resource Service Takoma Park, MD

Grace Thorpe
Daughter of Jim Thorpe and founder of the National Environmental Coalition of Native
Americans, Claremore OK

Ken Bossong
SUN DAY Campaign Takoma Park, MD

Jim Riccio
Greenpeace USA Washington DC 20001

Susan Gordon
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability Seattle, WA

Geoffrey Sea
Southern Ohio Neighbors Group Piketon, Ohio

Connie Altman
The Scioto Peace and Justice Fellowship of Reconciliation Lucasville, OH

Patricia A. Marida, chair, Central Ohio Sierra Club
Columbus, OH
Mark D. Stansbery
Community Organizing Center/For Mother Earth Columbus, Ohio
Vina Colley
PRESS Portsmouth, OH
Pamela Danielle
Grandmother's Guardian Arms Council Ravenna, OH
Jeff Cobb
Amaru Waka Dayton, OH
Terry J. Lodge
Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy Toledo, OH
Corinne Whitehead
Coalition for Health Concern Benton, KY
Mary Davis
Yggdrasil, a project of Earth Island Institute Lexington, KY
Al Fritsch
Earth Healing, Inc. Ravenna, KY
Ernest Fuller
Concerned Citizens for SNEC Safety Six Mile Run, PA
Bill Belitskus
Pennsylvania Environmental Network Frombell, PA
Traci Confer
Action PA Philadelphia, PA
Mike Ewall
Energy Justice Network Philadelphia, PA
Kathryn Barnes
Don't Waste Michigan Sherwood, MI
Michael J. Keegan
Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes Monroe, MI
Henry Peters
Radiological Evaluation & Action Project, Great Lakes Ewen MI
Helen Gourlay
8th Day Center for Justice Chicago, IL
Carolyn Treadway
No New Nukes Normal, IL
Oscar Shirani
Nuclear Whistle Blower against spent fuel dry cask storage containers (Garbage cans)
Glen Ellyn, IL
Scott Sklar
The Stella Group, Ltd. Arlington, VA
Janet Marsh Zeller
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League Glendale Springs, NC
Kathryn Kuppers
Charlotte Area Green Party Midland, NC
E.M.T. O'Nan
Protect All Children's Environment Marion, NC
Susan Oehler
WNC Peace Coalition Asheville NC
Mary Olson
NIRS Southeast Office Asheville, NC
Robbie Sweetser
Common Sense at the Nuclear Crossroads Asheville, NC
Lewis E. Patrie, M.D.
Western North Carolina Chapter, Physicians for Social Responsibility Asheville, NC
Jim Warren
NC Waste Awareness Reduction Network Durham, NC
Wells Eddleman
NC Citizens Research Group, Science Office Durham NC
Nancy Holt
Carolina Concerned Citizens Mebane, NC
William B. Holt
Be Safe Not Sorry Mebane, NC
Glenn Carroll
Nuclear Watch South Atlanta, GA
Steve Leeper
Global Peacemakers Association Atlanta, GA
Bob Darby
Food Not Bombs/Atlanta Atlanta, GA
Tom Ferguson
Foundation for Global Community/Atlanta Atlanta, GA
Joanne Steele
Action for a Clean Environment Alto, Georgia
John Bailey
Institute for Local Self-Reliance Minneapolis, MN
George Crocker
North American Water Office Lake Elmo, MN
Bruce A Drew
Prairie Island Coalition Minneapolis MN
Gladys Schmitz, SSND
Mankato Area Environmentalists Mankato, MN
Peace Action WI Milwaukee WI
Charlie Higley
Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin Madison, WI
Judy Miner
Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice Madison WI
Al Gedicks
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council La Crosse, WI
Don and Roberta Thurstin
The Sparrow Sings Park Falls WI
Jim Johnson
Blue Train Project Des Moines, IA
Senator Don Preister
Nebraska State Senate Lincoln, NE
Phillip Allen, M.D. Ph.D & June Allen, M.Ed
Enviro-Health Concerns partnership Wichita, KS
James M Nordlund
Kansas Chapter of The National Action Network Stockton, KS
Mark Haim
Missourians for Safe Energy Columbia, MO
Dennis Larson.
Peoples Action for Safe Energy Parthenon, AR
Sidney J. Goodman
SJG Design Mahwah, NJ
Norm Cohen
Coalition for Peace and Justice & UNPLUG Salem Campaign Linwood; NJ
Liz Arnone
Green Party of NJ
Rich Held
Social Action Committee of the Unitarian Universal Congregation of Monmouth County
Monmouth County, NJ
Alice Slater
Abolition 2000 New York, NY
Arnold Gore
Consumers Health Freedom Coalition New York,NY
Valerie Heinonen, o.s.u.;
Dominican Sisters of Hope, Newburgh, NY
Mercy Investment Program, New York, NY
Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Detroit, MI
Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk-U.S. Province, Long Island, NY
Nancy Burton
Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone Redding Ridge CT
Mitzi Bowman
Don't Waste Connecticut New Haven, CT
Sandra Gavutis
C-10 Research and Education Foundation Newburyport, MA
Eve Chayes Lyman
We Are One World, Boston Mobilization Cambridge, MA
Deb Katz
Citizen Awareness Network Shelburne Falls, MA
R. Tippens
Center for Cultural Evolution Colrain, MA
Rob Roy Macgregor
Fairwind Vermont Londonderry, VT
Susan Lauchlan
Peace and Justice Group of Waldo County Belfast, Maine
Greg Mello
Los Alamos Study Group Albuquerque, NM
Kathy Sanchez
Tewa Women United Santa Fe, NM
Frank C. Subjeck
AirWaterEarth, Org. Lake Havasu City, AZ.
Julia Rouvier
Flagstaff Nuclear Awareness Project Flagstaff, AZ
Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa
the Nuclear Resister Tucson AZ
Stephen Brittle
Don't Waste Arizona, Inc. Phoenix, AZ
Sarah M. Fields
The Uranium Project Moab, UT
Laura Bonham,
Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus Salt Lake City, UT
Deanna Taylor
Desert Greens Green Party of Utah Salt Lake City, UT
Tom King
People for Peace and Justice of Utah West Jordan, UT
Vanessa Pierce
HEAL Utah Salt Lake City, UT
Pete Litster
Shundahai Network Salt Lake City, UT
Peggy Maze Johnson
Citizen Alert Las Vegas, NV
Constance Kosuda, Esq.
Brainstormers Inc. Las Vegas, NV 89162
Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs, Livermore, CA
Phil Klasky
The Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition San Francisco, CA
Bradley Angel
Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice San Francisco, CA
Deborah Gallegos
La Raza Unida Student Club of City College San Francisco, CA
Mary Bull
Greenwood Earth Alliance San Francisco, CA
Joe Mirabile
EcoBridge San Francisco, CA
Molly Johnson
Grandmothers for Peace/SLO County San Miguel, CA
Rochelle Becker
Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility San Luis Obispo, CA
Wendy Oser
Nuclear Guardianship Project Berkeley, CA
Jane Swanson
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace Pismo Beach, CA
Pamela S. Meidell
Atomic Mirror Port Hueneme CA
Fran Macy
Center for Safe Energy Berkeley, CA
Michael Welch
Redwood Alliance Arcata, CA
Jane Williams
California Communities Against Toxics Rosamond, CA
Jeremy Maxand
Snake River Alliance Boise, ID
Greg Wingard,
Waste Action Project Seattle, WA

Cc: The Honorable Ted Strickland Governor of Ohio
Energy Secretary Bodman
Chairman Dale Klein, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Commissioner McGaffigan
Commissioner Diaz
Commissioner Jaczo
Commissioner Merrifield