Mothers for Nuclear Informational Flyer

This document is intended to provide supplemental information to assist applicants developing a Community Benefits Plan (CBP) for the Regional Direct Air Capture Hubs. As shown in the graphic to the right, Community Benefits Plans are based on a set of four core interdependent policy priorities: engaging communities and labor; investing in America's workforce; advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; and implementing Justice40.

In the absence of a federal geologic repository or consolidated, interim storage in the United States, commercial spent fuel will remain stranded at some 75 sites across the country. Currently, these include 18 “orphaned sites” where spent fuel has been left at decommissioned reactor sites.

With the termination of the Yucca Mountain project, which was proposed to be our nation’s first repository for the disposal of military and civilian spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, the future of nuclear waste management and disposal in this country became increasingly uncertain. Interim storage has been advocated by many as a temporary solution while a permanent solution is studied for potentially several more decades to come.

Nuclear waste management seems to exist in a perpetual state of crises. For 50 years the nuclear states of the world have fought, and generally lost, the battle to deal with the nuclear waste problem. Worldwide, there is a growing acknowledgement within industry and government that social and ethical issues are just as important as technical issues when developing safe programs for nuclear waste management. This paper is a review of some of the outstanding social and ethical issues that are influencing discussions on nuclear waste management around the world.

As a result of the 2007 ruling by the U.S. District Court of Northern California that the DOE must prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate alternatives for cleanup of Area IV of the SSFL, DOE has implemented major changes in its management of SSFL Area IV. As an initial step, this community involvement plan (CIP) outlines a series of activities and programs that intend to engage the public, establish transparency in DOE actions and decisions, and increase input from the community.

Studies indicate that the energy burden — energy costs as a percentage of annual family income — on low-income families is inordinately high, compared to that of the rest of the population. Rising fuel costs exacerbate this problem. Residential solar energy systems can help address this situation by furnishing a price-stable energy source with the added benefit of reduced greenhouse gas emissions. However, without appropriate incentives, these systems are prohibitively expensive for low-income families.

With the termination of the Yucca Mountain project, which was proposed to be our nation’s first repository for the disposal of military and civilian spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, the future of nuclear waste management and disposal in this country became increasingly uncertain. Interim storage has been advocated by many as a temporary solution while a permanent solution is studied for potentially several more decades to come.

Nuclear energy experts consider commercial power from fission to be a strong contender to help mitigate the increasing effects of climate change, in part due to its low-to-no carbon emissions. Nevertheless, nuclear energy's history, including meltdowns such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, and dumping in sacred Indigenous land such as Yucca Mountain, raises important concerns in public deliberation over nuclear power.

The purpose of this research was to collect, analyze, and summarize all of the nuclear power-related surveys conducted in the United States through June, 1981, that we could obtain. The surveys collected were national, statewide, and areawide in scope. Slightly over 100 surveys were collected for an earlier, similar effort carried out in 1977. About 130 new surveys were added to the earlier survey data. Thus, about 230 surveys were screened for inclusion in this report.