SAVANNAH RIVER CAB AGAIN VOTES AGAINST INTERIM STORAGE

The full Savannah River Site Citizen’s Advisory Board voted yesterday to back a position paper that opposes consolidated storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel at the site. The vote comes after some community groups have taken initial steps to explore the possible establishment of an interim storage site in the Savannah River region. The Department of Energy has said it is looking at areas willing to host interim storage sites, and has emphasized that it will focus on consent from local communities. Yesterday’s 17 to 6 vote by the full board shows an increased number of group members opposing interim storage—In an initial vote last week 12 members of the CAB backed the anti-interim storage position, while 10 supported a position advocating a closer look at the matter. That led to this week’s up or down vote on the anti-interim storage paper.

Opponents of interim storage at Savannah River are calling yesterday’s vote a victory. “This vote firmly established that the community is on a track to reject any formal proposal to store highly radioactive commercial spent fuel at SRS,” Tom Clements, Southeastern Nuclear Campaign Coordinator with Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. “The effort by SRS boosters to leave the door open for spent fuel storage and reprocessing has failed at this point but the community must be on guard for the idea to surface again.”