On Thursday, two Democrats on a House Oversight subcommittee forcefully condemned expanding nuclear power in the U.S. before the federal government builds a permanent repository for nuclear waste.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Oversight economic growth, energy policy, and regulatory affairs subcommittee, used the hearing as a platform to again demand federal action, and compensation, for people she says were sickened in her district near St. Louis by Manhattan Project-era radioactive waste that spilled into Coldwater Creek.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), whose district includes the Sandia National Laboratories main campus in Albuquerque, took things to another level, angrily shouting over subcommittee Chairman Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) about the World War II-era Trinity atomic weapon test, and about Holtec International.
In her opening statement, Bush called out what she said was “the devastating impact nuclear waste has had on this nation, especially black and brown communities” and added that “we cannot talk about expanding nuclear energy in this country without first dealing with the federal government’s continuing legacy of failing to properly remediate harmful nuclear waste.”
Later in the hearing, Stansbury said that Holtec International, which has proposed building a near-surface, interim spent fuel storage depot in Eddy County, N.M., was trying to “take advantage of the fact that DOE had not come up with a way to find a permanent storage solution for all of this spent nuclear waste.”
Stansbury also said that the waste-storage containers Holtec planned to use at the proposed interim storage depot would eventually melt.
The company, Stansbury said in Thursday’s hearing, “couldn’t answer what they were going to do with the nuclear storage after 20 years, when the design life of their canisters would begin to melt.”
“The design life of [Holtec’s spent fuel storage] systems is well over 100 years but they are licensed for an initial 20 year period by the NRC,” a Holtec spokesperson wrote in an email. “These systems safely store fuel across the globe, including 142 nuclear plants worldwide, and are licensed by 13 different counties outside of the US. Statements like those made today have no validity and quite frankly, are irresponsible and cause misinformation at worst and undue fear at best.”
Toward the conclusion of her roughly six-minute harangue, which Stansbury did not appear to address to assembled witnesses including Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff, Fallon attempted repeatedly to gavel down the congresswoman from New Mexico, eventually declaring her out of order.
“It is out of order to dump nuclear waste in our community!” Stansbury said, her voice reaching the breaking point several times.
“I agree,” said Fallon, but “you didn’t remove one bit of nuclear waste by being out of order here.”
