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Honorable
Roy Cooper
Attorney
General
Subject: More delay at Yucca heightens need for
Dear
Attorney General Cooper,
The Bush
administration continues its abject negligence regarding the nation’s highest impact
targets – “spent” fuel cooling pools at nuclear power plants – which
increasingly appear to represent permanent hazards unless current
policies change. The dangerous
deception that nuclear plants are secure is largely being conducted in order to
promote the nuclear power industry’s revival.
Therefore,
NC WARN redoubles its call for you to use your authority under the North
Carolina Constitution to mandate the thinning of high density waste pools at
all nuclear plants in this state.
For several
years nuclear utilities, their political allies and a complicit national media
have pretended that the opening of a dumpsite at
However,
yet another delay announced last week by the Department of Energy proves that the
earliest the politically driven Yucca project could open is 2015, and increases
the likelihood that it never will.
Hence, minimizing risks from spent fuel storage must now become a
paramount public safety priority – despite the ongoing pressure and deception
from Progress Energy, Duke Energy and their front groups such as the Nuclear
Energy Institute.
It has
been over two years since you and 26 other state attorneys general called on
Congress for “urgent steps” toward greater protection for spent fuel pools,
saying “the consequences of a catastrophic attack against a nuclear power plant
are simply incalculable.”
The U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission ignored your request, although in the succeeding
period your concerns have been validated by a wealth of evidence that: 1) nuclear plants are top targets, 2) the
plants are lightly defended relative to the level of potential attack, and 3)
spent fuel pools represent a prospective social and economic disaster unmatched
by any other U.S. target.
The following
recent developments amplify the need for short-term action to reduce risks:
- The National Academy of
Sciences has joined a growing list of scientists concerned about the risks
inherent in high density pool storage of nuclear waste. However, the industry-protective NRC
continues stalling release of the “public” version of the long-awaited NAS
study, citing security concerns.
- The 9/11 Commission reported
that at least two nuclear plants were originally planned as targets for
the 2001 al Qaeda attacks.
- Those expressing certainty
that the
- In November, the CIA cited a
major concern about “the very real possibility that al Qaeda or other
terrorist groups might also try to launch conventional attacks against the
chemical or nuclear industrial infrastructure of the U. S.”
- Republican Congressman Curt
Weldon, citing a source reliable in the past, said in December that al
Qaeda has plans to attack
The sum
of these and related revelations is that a gaping hole in public safety will
exist for an indefinite period – unless true leaders emerge to change the
practice of storing spent fuel in high density pools. While the nuclear
industry systematically diverts security questions toward the alleged strength
of its reactor buildings, all informed parties know that other vital components
of nuclear plants are more likely to be targeted, particularly the waste
pool(s) at each plant.
As we notified you last week,
seven of your attorneys general colleagues – warning of “possibly unimaginable
nuclear catastrophes” and emphasizing spent fuel vulnerabilities – are pressing
the NRC to order upgrades security "to reflect the realities of 2005 … terrorists
may attack by air or water and in numbers greater than four." (emphasis added) It is unthinkable that plants are still required to design defenses only against such
small teams of intruders on foot.
In fact, the
NRC insists that the U.S. military – not plant owners – is responsible for
defending against all but the most modest attack scenarios, and there are no
defenses in place against many types of strikes, including jetliners and small planes packed with explosives. Yet the industry, the NRC and most elected
officials pretend this is somehow a secret to sophisticated terrorists who have
declared their intention to inflict maximum damage on the
The
Nuclear Security Coalition, a national
alliance of grassroots and public interest groups, plus top scientists, has
formally petitioned the NRC for action regarding 32 Boiling Water Reactors
(including NC’s Brunswick) that have cooling pools elevated several stories
above ground, with many surrounded by mere sheet-metal construction. But we are under no illusion that the Bush
administration’s NRC will break free of the industry on this or other vital
security issues.
There is
a disconnect between words and actions of almost all political leaders who have
acknowledged concerns about nuclear plants as targets. As Congressman Ed
The
answer could lie in this nation’s propensity for reacting to serious mistakes
instead of preventing them.
With the federal government clearly protecting
the nuclear industry instead of the public, we again look to you, as this state’s leading law
enforcement official, to use your authority over state-chartered corporate
utilities Duke Energy and Progress Energy. The members of NC WARN assert our right
under the state constitution (ie, power over these corporations chartered by
the People of North Carolina), to protect ourselves from unreasonable risk
created by corporate actions, by having our
attorney general bring this matter before
the courts as the statutes allow. Since NC WARN and 17 other NC
organizations first petitioned you in May, 2002 to intervene in the nuclear
waste storage at the Harris,
With the
utter irrationality of continuing the present course for any additional time –
much less decades – we urge you to act without delay to commence a demand that cooling
pools now over-crowded with deadly waste, be thinned out in favor of hardened
and dispersed dry storage. Such a
strategy, as used in other countries, creates a powerful deterrent against
attack on any nuclear plant.
Plant
owners could employ this approach for less annually than they spend on public
relations, lobbying and image advertising.
Alternatively, funds could be redirected from some of the increasingly
notorious “pork” in the Homeland Security budget. The administration’s new budget includes $200
million to protect against “dirty” bombs in the streets of
Finally,
we urge you to discuss with other state attorneys general the need for
Even if a
national repository ever opens, spent fuel will be stored at power plants for
decades. For it to remain in high
density pools would be an irrational and foolish gamble.
Thank you
for your earliest reply to this appeal.
Sincerely,
Executive
Director
NC WARN
cc. Rep. David Price
Rep.
Howard Coble
Rep. Bob Etheridge
Rep.
Mike McIntyre
Rep.
Mel Watt
Rep.
Brad Miller
Rep. Walter Jones