Ecological Wisdom * Social Justice * Grassroots Democracy * Non-Violence
>> Green Party of Michigan <<
http://www.migreens.org
>>> ---------------- <<<
>>> News Release <<<
>>> ---------------- <<<
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
---------------------
August 6, 2003
For More Information Contact:
----------------------------
Marc Reichardt -- Party Chair, GPMI
phone: 734-668-9628
e-mail: chair@migreens.org
Art Myatt, Chair/GPMI Platform Committee
e-mail: almyatt@earthlink.net
Greens Call for Making N-Waste Safer -- Now!
============================================
Vitrification On Site Would Fight Pollution, Proliferation
As the world remembers Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Michigan's
Congressional delegation is in bi-partisan retreat from environmental
clean-up and energy efficiency, the Green Party of Michigan (GPMI)
is proposing that spent nuclear fuel be made safer where it is --
before transporting it anywhere.
Art Myatt, chair of the GPMI Platform Committee and a candidate
for the 27th State House District seat in 2002, wrote the new plank.
It calls for the fuel to be captured inside glass ingots, a process
named "vitrification", to prevent the radioactive material from being
scattered on the wind or easily leached into the water supply.
The announcement comes as supporters of peace across the state,
the nation, and the world commemorate the 58th anniversaries of the
atomic-bomb attacks on Japan: Hiroshima today and Nagasaki on
Saturday, August 9.
It also follows some less positive state news on energy and the
environment:
* The release of a letter from Michigan's two US Senators
and 15 members of Congress to the EPA protesting the
proposed new tougher National Ambient Air Quality
Standard for ozone.
* "No" votes cast by both Senators Levin and Stabenow on
an amendment by Illinois's Dick Durbin to boost CAFE
(corporate average fuel economy) standards over the
next twelve years.
Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) president Lana Pollack has been
quoted as saying the letter "suggests serious foot-dragging on moving
ahead with the new 8-hour ozone rule."
The new GPMI platform plank notes, "Vitrifying spent nuclear fuel
greatly reduces the risk of a spontaneous 'meltdown'. It also makes
the spent fuel unavailable for reprocessing -- and less of a target
for terrorists."
This helps both protect the environment and provide true national
security, Myatt points out. So why hasn't it been proposed before?
"The nuclear industry is enthusiastic only about vitrification that
would be put off until some distant future when Yucca Mountain is
presumably ready, and then paid for by the government. On-site
vitrification, in which every penny of cost can be charged to the
particular power plant whose spent fuel is being processed, has no
industry advocates at all."
GPMI chair Marc Reichardt observes, "Our representatives in the US
House and Senate complain about 'transport pollution' when it means
tougher ozone standards. Vitrification on site would fight an even
more hazardous type of transport pollution: spills, accidents, or
hijacking of nuclear waste in transit."
Douglas Campbell, Green candidate for governor in 2002 and (like
Myatt) an engineer by trade, adds: "If left in metallic form, spent
nuclear fuel corrodes, flakes away, and leaches into the environment
every day as part of the routine procedures of the nuclear industry.
That's what vitrification prevents."
Myatt has written an article on the plank which will appear in the
next issue of GPMI's quarterly _Amber Waves of Green_ (AWOG) newspaper.
A map of 22 nuclear-power plants in and around Michigan now storing their
spent fuel waste on site in its raw form will accompany the article.
The issue will be sent out to members and the media after GPMI's upcoming
quarterly statewide meeting Saturday, August 23 at the East Lansing
Public Library.
Myatt also aims to spread the issue, and the platform plank, to the
Green Party of the United States (GPUS) and other state Green Parties.
"The Bush regime's energy plan is to extend the life of existing
nuclear plants and to build new ones. Insisting on vitrification now
is an effective way to both protect our environment and oppose Bush."
For more information on the Green Party of Michigan and its
positions on the environment, energy, and other issues, visit:
http://www.migreens.org
# # #
Green Party of Michigan * 548 S. Main Street *
* Ann Arbor, MI 48104 * 734-663-3555
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Green Party of Michigan was formed in 1987 to address environmental
issues in Michigan politics. There are Greens organized in all 50 states
and the District of Columbia. Each state Green Party sets its own goals
and creates its own structure, but US Greens agree on Ten Key Values:
Ecological Wisdom * Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice * Nonviolence
Community Economics * Decentralization
Feminism * Respect for Diversity
Personal and Global * Future Focus/
Responsibility Sustainability
created/distributed using donated labor
========================== text of plank ==========================
Green Party of Michigan -- Platform
===================================
Part III -- Ecology
A -- Environmental Sustainability
2 -- Industry in the Environment
[new sub-section] h -- Spent Nuclear Reactor Fuel
Radioactive waste, including spent nuclear fuel, can be made
safer by capturing it inside glass ingots. This process, called
"vitrification", prevents the radioactive material from being
scattered on the wind or easily leached into the water supply.
Vitrifying spent nuclear fuel greatly reduces the risk of a
spontaneous "meltdown". It also makes the spent fuel unavailable
for reprocessing -- and less of a target for terrorists.
The Bush regime wants to leave U.S. spent fuel in its current
dangerous form until the Yucca Mountain storage site is declared
"ready." Then it would be shipped -- still in its most hazardous
form -- to Nevada, where it would be vitrified. There is no cost
advantage to a large national vitrification plant instead of
smaller plants located where the spent fuel is now. There is
a safety advantage to making radioactive waste safer as soon as
possible. As a bonus, vitrifying the waste now would create
jobs now, in all areas of the country that have nuclear power
plants -- including Michigan.
Greens propose:
* Making spent nuclear fuel safer now, by vitrifying it on
the sites where it is now stored.
* Prohibiting shipment of spent nuclear fuel on any public
right-of-way unless it is first vitrified.
Other Contacts:
Green Party of Michigan
548 S Main St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-663-3555
info@migreens.org
posted to web 09 Aug 2003