Fukushima Freeways: Shipping Nuclear Waste Across The Heartland!
 
An educational program presented by Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps,
October 22 and 23, in Davenport, Iowa City, Des Moines, and Omaha.
 
Nuclear Power Stations are closing across the country including Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. The problem of what to do with the deadly nuclear waste remains. One of the proposed solutions is to transport the nuclear garbage across I-80 and railways through the Midwest on its way to nuclear waste dumps in New Mexico, Texas, and Nevada.  Please come to learn and discuss the issue, the problem and some solutions.
Monday, October 22, 2018 at 12:30 PM – 2 PM.  Davenport Public Library, 6000 Eastern Ave, Davenport, Iowa.  Refreshments will be served.
Monday, October 22, 2018 at 6:30 PM – 8 PM.  Johnson County Ambulance, 808 S Dubuque St, Iowa City, Iowa.  Refreshments will be served.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 12:30 PM – 2 PM.  Des Moines Public Library (Central), 1000 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa.  Refreshments will be served.
Tuesday, October 23, 6:30 to 8pm. UNO Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center, 6400 South, University Drive Road North, Omaha, Nebraska.  Refreshments will be served.
 
The 90-minute program will include:
 
·         A presentation by Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist for Beyond Nuclear, addressing the safety and security risks of transporting highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel on the roads and rails, as proposed in legislation currently before the U.S. Congress. He will also discuss the risks of wet storage pool fires, and the interim alternative of Hardened On-Site Storage (HOSS), as well as the need to stop generating high-level radioactive waste.
 
·         An animation, prepared by Scott Portzline, Security Consultant, Three Mile Island Alert, about radioactive waste transport risks in Iowa and Nebraska, will be shown. So too will a 90-second aerial drone-captured video, featuring transport routes in Pennsylvania.
 
·         A short informational video, “Nuclear Transports – Eye-Witness to Rulebreaking,” also prepared by Portzline, will be shown.
 
·         Lessons learned will be applied to Iowa and Nebraska.
 
·         The program will be followed by plenty of time for questions and answers.
 
 
Background
Currently regulators are considering “temporary” storage sites in Texas and New Mexico for highly radioactive nuclear waste.  Additionally, pressure remains to create a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. 
 
Iowa and Nebraska freeways and railroads will be a major shipping route for that waste.  Barge shipments into the Port of Omaha are also proposed. 
 
3,066 rail-sized casks on trains, and another 1,789 Legal Weight Truck-sized casks on the interstates, would travel through Iowa, bound for Nevada, if the Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump opens. In addition to all 4,855 casks entering from IA, Nebraska would be burdened with another 3,673 rail-sized casks traveling through.
 
The so-called “centralized interim storage facilities” in New Mexico and/or Texas could well mean even larger shipment numbers through Iowa and Nebraska.
 
Come learn more about the risks, and how you can help prevent them.  Health, safety, security, and environmental risks include severe accidents, or even terrorist attacks, releasing catastrophic amounts of hazardous radioactivity, impacting an entire region; even routine, incident-free shipments would be like “mobile X-ray machines that can’t be turned off,” delivering a harmful dose at close range as they pass by.
 
Biography of Keven Kamps
Kevin Kamps has worked as the Radioactive Waste Watchdog at Beyond Nuclear in Takoma Park, Maryland, since July, 2007.  Before that, he was the Radioactive Waste Specialist at Nuclear Information & Resource Service in Washington, D.C.  Kevin specializes in high-level waste management and transportation, new and existing reactors, decommissioning, Congress watch, climate change, and federal subsidies.  Kevin has extensive knowledge about the risks of radioactive waste generation, storage at reactor sites, and transportation through communities across the country.  In addition, Kevin focuses on eliminating federal subsidies for new reactors and other wasteful nuclear projects such as reprocessing.  Kevin attended Earlham College, in Richmond, Indiana, as well as Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he studied biology and chemistry.
 
Program Sponsors
These programs are sponsored by the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, Nuclear Free Campaign of the Sierra Club, Beyond Nuclear, Iowa Physicians for Social Responsibility, WILPF, Indigenous Iowa, Green State Solutions.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to [log in to unmask], or visit Listserv online. For all the latest news and activities, sign up for Sierra Club Insider, the Club's twice-monthly flagship e-newsletter. Listserv users are subject to the Sierra Club's Terms and Conditions.