Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking across the civilian nuclear power space this week.
U.S. accuses Russia of war crimes in shelling Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Even before the U.S. took a firm stance on the Russian military’s violence against civilians in Ukraine this week, its embassy in Kyiv accused Moscow of violating the rules of war when it shelled a nuclear power plant, according to a recent social media post.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February its forces have “destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday. “Based on information currently available, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.”
Among Ukraine’s critical infrastructure targeted by Moscow in recent weeks is the six-reactor Zaporizhzhia plant in the country’s eastern reaches. The U.S.’s Kyiv embassy contended in a March 4 Tweet that targeting a nuclear power plant constitutes a war crime.
“Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further,” the embassy account said. Russia seized Zaporizhzhia March 3. Fighting around the plant caused a fire at a nearby training building, but as of Friday, there had been no radiological releases at the site.
Meanwhile Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) told Reuters Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is trying to send a group of experts to Zaporizhzhia and Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, which Russian forces also captured earlier this month. So far, IAEA has yet to work out an agreement with both Kyiv and Moscow to make that happen.
City of Fort Worth to File Amicus Brief in Enviros’ Interim Storage Suit
One of Texas’s largest cities is contributing to a lawsuit challenging a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the western part of the state, according to court documents filed this week.
According to the Thursday filing, the city of Fort Worth plans to file an amicus brief in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals supporting a coalition of anti-nuclear groups’ suit aimed at blocking Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) planned interim storage site in Andrews, Texas.
“The City has an immediate interest in this litigation because it is concerned that spent nuclear fuel will be transported by rail through Fort Worth to be stored” at the ISP site, the filing said. Fort Worth plans to address points not already made by the petitioners. The notice did not say when such a brief would be sent to the court.
Meanwhile, anti-nukers have been ramping up their case against the proposed ISP site.
In a March 18 brief, headliner Beyond Nuclear doubled down on some well-traveled arguments against commercial interim storage — that a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for such a site would run afoul of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.
NRC licensed the proposed ISP site in September. The agency is also reviewing a license application for a similar project planned for New Mexico by Holtec International.
