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Urge Sen. Bennett to cut nuclear waste planSubheadBody6/27/07 Update: The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee approved a spending bill on Tuesday that included $242 million for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). This is $163 million less than requested by the Bush Administration, but $122 more than approved by the House of Representatives. Further cuts are possible before the bill goes to a full vote, so keep those calls coming!
The Bush Administration is currently pushing a nuclear waste scheme that-with the help of companies like EnergySolutions-will mean more and likely hotter nuclear waste being dumped in Utah.
The scheme, known as the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), will waste billions of taxpayer dollars on reviving the past failures of nuclear waste reprocessing while committing the U.S. to taking on the burden of disposing high-level nuclear waste from around the world. Thankfully, the House of Representatives has already voted to drastically reduce funding for GNEP, calling the plan "rushed, poorly defined, expansive, and expensive." Now it's the Senate's turn and Senator Bob Bennett (R-UT) sits on the committee that this week will decide funding for this program. Can you call Sen. Bennett today and urge him to cut all funding for this incredibly polluting and expensive plan? Sen. Bennett needs to know that Utahns do not want more nuclear waste dumped in our state, nor do we want billions of taxpayer dollars diverted from developing clean, renewable sources of energy to fund the failed nuclear energy policies of past decades. You can leave a message for Sen. Bennett in his Washington, D.C. office by calling (202) 224-5444 or you can call his Salt Lake Office at (801) 524-5933
You can also sign our online petition to him here: http://www.healutah.org/what/energypolicy/reprocessing/CutGNEP Support for GNEP is already dwindling and we have a chance to see significant cuts to the program if we can generate enough calls.
Here's a sample message you can leave: Hi my name is ____ and I'm calling from ____. I'm calling to urge Sen. Bennett to cut all funding for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), currently part of the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. Taxpayer dollars should not be wasted on a plan that will create more nuclear waste and only make our country's nuclear waste problem worse. GNEP is not a solution to this problem and I believe the billions of dollars the program will need would be better invested in clean, renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency. While the nuclear industry and federal government should be absolutely committed to solving our country's nuclear waste problem, GNEP is no solution. That's because GNEP commits the U.S. to a failed technology--nuclear waste reprocessing--and then compounds the problem by requiring the U.S. to import spent nuclear fuel from around the world. Despite the claims of proponents, reprocessing--the process of extracting plutonium and uranium from spent nuclear fuel--does not "recycle" spent fuel. In fact, reprocessing will exacerbate our nation's nuclear waste problem because it creates more nuclear waste streams that are difficult to manage and dispose. This incredibly expensive and polluting process is nothing we haven't tried before. Taxpayers are still footing the $5.2 billion clean-up tab from the last U.S. attempt to commercially reprocess nuclear waste. For us here in Utah, GNEP has very direct implications because EnergySolutions is bidding to build and operate the U.S. reprocessing facility. Although that facility would not be built in Utah, much of the waste from it will likely end up being dumped here at EnergySolutions (in fact, this will happen whether or not EnergySolutions wins its bid). Please call Sen. Bennett today and ask him to use his power in the Senate to stop funding for GNEP.You can call Sen. Bennett in his Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-5444 or you can call his Salt Lake Office at (801) 524-5933 You can also sign our online petition to him here: http://www.healutah.org/what/energypolicy/reprocessing/CutGNEP For more information on the failures of reprocessing in this country and around the world, click here: http://www.healutah.org/what/energypolicy/reprocessing For more information on EnergySolutions' bid to build and operate the U.S. reprocessing facility, click here: http://www.healutah.org/what/energypolicy/reprocessing/GNEP Thank you, John Urgo  |
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