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Let Your Voice Be Heard! Oppose the ASLB Ruling in Favor of PFS Licensing!

On February 24, 2005, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) ruled in favor of licensing PFS, dismissing the remaining contentions brought by the State of Utah. The contentions dealt with the probability of jet fighter crashes into the facility, and the ability of Yucca Mountain to accept the welded canistered waste that would be stored there. The ASLB decision theoretically allows the Private Fuel Storage license application to move forward before the Commission for final approval.

The State of Utah, however, has already appealed the decision to the entire ASLB body. The appeal is based on the dissenting opinion by Judge Lam in the ruling on crash probability. On March 18th, with the announcement by DOE that water infiltration data taken by the US Geological Survey at Yucca Mountain may have been falsified, the State of Utah also appealed the ASLB decision on its other contention. The falsification of hydrological data at Yucca Mountain would raise serious questions about the suitability of the site, the ethics of those evaluating it, and whether Yucca Mountain will indeed ever open and take the waste proposed to be stored at PFS.

As these appeals are processed, now is the critical time to raise our voices loud and clear. This dump proposal is unacceptable. It is neither safe, sound, nor just. Private Fuel Storage (PFS) should not be allowed to move forward with the high-level nuclear waste dump proposed for the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation, which is 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

ORGANIZATIONS: Join over 245 national, native, and local groups and sign on to a letter to the NRC Commissioners calling on them to deny the PFS license!

WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR and submit them to your local newspaper. The licensing of PFS will affect communities far from Utah and Nevada. In fact, as the transportation of high-level radioactive waste could begin as early as 2007, communities across the country will be the first to be put at risk. The transportation of waste from reactor sites around the country to Utah is inherently dangerous, and there are many unresolved issues with the integrity of the casks, the training and funding of emergency responders,and the routes themselves. These problems all exist when considering shipments to Yucca Mountain or any site, but will be exacerbated as PFS significantly pushes forward the timeframe for shipments to begin.

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