It is clear from its March 1 editorial ("Don't sue over Yucca") that The Augusta Chronicle supports the continued development and opening of Yucca Mountain as a permanent repository for the nation's nuclear waste and that you oppose the current administration's desire and actions to the contrary.
However, it argues that legal action is not an appropriate route to take in trying to get the government to do what is right. We must respectfully disagree with that assessment.
AIKEN COUNTY'S belief is that the Obama administration, through the Department of Energy, is taking steps to discontinue the legislatively mandated license application for the development of the Yucca Mountain waste repository in violation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The South Carolina attorney general and many other interested parties are of the same belief. When the federal government is taking action that clearly violates established statutes and laws, and when the affected parties have availed themselves of all other avenues for recourse, legal action is both proper and necessary.
These are the facts:
- Yucca Mountain is the only known location for disposing of high level radioactive waste currently at Savannah River Site and many other locations around the country.
- American taxpayers and utility ratepayers have spent $10 billion to test and evaluate the Yucca Mountain location, and most agree the science behind these evaluations clearly support the development of this facility and that it is both environmentally sound and secure.
- The Nuclear Waste Policy Act, passed by the Congress and signed into law by the president, very specifically states that Yucca Mountain is the location of the nation's only high-level radioactive waste repository, and that the DOE shall prepare and submit a construction license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Further, the NRC is required to evaluate and rule on the application within three years. This license application was submitted in 2008, and the NRC has been reviewing it for more than a year.
- ON FEB. 1, the DOE announced that it would withdraw the license application from the NRC within 30 days and take other steps to close down the Yucca Mountain project. They further stated their intention to close the project in such a way so it can never be considered again, effectively wasting the $10 billion investment. The DOE has provided no scientific justification for taking this action, nor offered any other alternative site for the waste. Clearly, this is a decision based solely on politics and not supported by the facts.
- The president has indicated his intention not to proceed with the Yucca Mountain project since his inauguration. Many affected people have attempted to engage him and members of his administration about Yucca Mountain to no avail. Letters, resolutions and other means of input from the federal legislators, state governments, other affected communities and individual citizens have been ignored.
It is abundantly clear to us that the DOE's actions are in violation of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and raise constitutional concerns regarding the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches. These laws were lawfully enacted by Congress. For example, in 2002 Congress legislated that "the Secretary (of Energy) shall submit to the (Nuclear Regulatory) Commission an application for a construction authorization ... for Yucca Mountain."
The president is not necessarily the "decider" as The Chronicle suggests, but rather the "implementer" of laws established by Congress. Certainly he can influence the development of policies and laws, but until such time as the law is changed, no administration can ignore or circumvent it.
THE CITIZENS OF the CSRA have been rebuffed at every turn by the Department of Energy when attempting to understand the rationale behind, and impact of, their Yucca Mountain decision on our community. Given that nobody in the administration appears to be listening to our pleas -- or, worse, is simply dismissing them as unimportant -- there is ample reason to take legal action to protect our citizens.
It is our hope that The Augusta Chronicle will reconsider its position on this matter and join with many others in our region and across the country in supporting legal action against the DOE.
(The writer is chairman of the Aiken County Council.)
Wake up guys! Haven't you been paying attention? Obama and the majority of his corrupt congress are ramming Obamacare down our throats, threatening the 2nd Amendment, continuing to fight a very unpopular and unnecessary war in Afghanistan, failing to protect our borders from Illegal Aliens, drug smugglers, terrorists, etc., and proparing to give amnesty to 20-30 MILLION illegal aliens(thereby creating a de facto 3rd party)while 15 MILLION Americans are out of work. BILLIONS have given to Banks that harass their customers by calling them 20-30 times a day(Wells Fargo) and on Sundays Chase) while home are forclosed on. The credit card companies doubled their interest rates before the new changes made to protect the consumer took effect, wiping out any savings to the consumer.
And these are only the things that came to me in 5 seconds!
Go back and watch "The Wizard of OZ". In one scene, there is the famous, "OZ HAS SPOKEN"! Well Obama has spoken, and you might as well get used to it, uness you want to be called "Un-American".
From a November 13, 2009 article in the L.A. times. For 41 years the US Government, including the British too, detonated 921 nuclear warheads at the Yucca test range. The site is the worst manmade disaster in the nation. It's estimated that a toxic load of 300 million curies are left behind. It's further estimated that 1.6 trillion gallons of underground water at the site is contaminated and in the worse places, the water reaches millions of picocuries per liter. The federal standard for drinking water is 20 picocuries per liter. The contaminated water poses risks for tens of thousands of years. And some people want to store more waste at Yucca and worsen the problem. Nevadans may have been crazy before but they've got their right mind now. And they'll fight to keep people from dumping more waste on them. Its social justice for the Federal Government and the American people to spent whatever trillions of dollars it takes to remediate and clean up the Yucca site instead of fouling it further.
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