A4NR Testimony to Blue Ribbon Commission on Radioactive Waste 9-13-2011

http://a4nr.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/A4NR-Testimony-to-BRC-9.13.11.pdf

As the Blue Ribbon Commission comes to the end of its second full year of investigation into the

issues surrounding disposal and final disposition of high-level radioactive waste, the Alliance for

Nuclear Responsibility again encourages the panel to actively consider holding one of their next

meetings in the state of California. While we support the newfound regulatory acknowledgment

of increased seismic hazards in many of our nation’s other nuclear-powered states, the fact

remains that California has the most active seismic footprint of any nuclear reactor host state.

This provides a unique setting in which to consider the near and long term hazards posed by

radioactive waste. Indeed, it was one of the BRC’s own consulting panelists, Dr. Per F. Peterson

of U.C. Berkeley, who first brought this to light in his email of November 25, 2010, in which he

wrote:

…the issues for removal and disposition of spent fuel from

California do involve challenges, which must be considered in the

development of national policy for the management of spent fuel

and high level waste…”

In light of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recent revisions to the Waste Confidence

Decision, and their ongoing policy of reactor license renewals, we may be seeing high-level

waste accumulating across our nation well into the next century—a period of time during which

both the reactors and waste storage infrastructure will continue to age. . .