Wouldn't you just love loads of ooey-gooey nuclear waste to be shipped into Tennessee?
Didn't think so.
So fire up your e-mail software and prepare to do some work. There are two issues of which you need to be aware.
The first is Senate Resolution 259 which will be taken up by the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday.SR 259 is a Senate Resolution calling on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny a low level waste import license request. The House is also reviewing the bill.
EnergySolutions runs 2 radioactive incinerators, a metal melter and other "processing" facilities in Memphis, Oak Ridge and Kingston, Tennessee. EnergySolutions is now applying for a federal license to import 20,000 tons, one million cubic feet and over 600,000,000,000,000 becquerels (radioactive emissions per second) of radioactive waste (mainly from Italian nuclear power and related industries) into the U.S. for processing including incineration, transport and disposal.
This opens our doors to foreign radioactive waste coming in from around the world.
If approved, the federal legislation gives a huge financial boost to processors that routinely release radioactivity and use Tennessee (TDEC) state authority to release the waste from regulatory controls normally required for nuclear power waste. It facilitates dispersing nuclear waste in this country via Tennessee.
The second issue is a substitution expected to be made by Rep. Jim Hackworth to an unrelated bill he already has in the legislative stream. The substitutions would allow communities to impose a privilege tax on nuclear waste brought in and processed in their communities. Such a tax would be an incentive for communities to invite nuclear waste into the state to be processed in their towns. This kind of money we don't need.
Let 'em know how you feel -- time is short.
-- Jim Grinstead
h/t - Solar Valley Coalition, Sierra Club
Here are the folks to contact on the House Ways and Means Committee on SB259 and the Hackworth substitution.
rep.harry.tindell@legislature.state.tn.us,
rep.lois.deberry@legislature.state.tn.us,
rep.joe.armstrong@legislature.state.tn.us,
rep.mike.harrison@legislature.state.tn.us,
rep.steve.mcdaniel@legislature.state.tn.us,
rep.gary.odom@legislature.state.tn.us,
rep.doug.overbey@legislature.state.tn.us,
rep.randy.rinks@legislature.state.tn.us,
rep.dennis.roach@legislature.state.tn.us,
rep.johnny.shaw@legislature.state.tn.us
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