Pantano Calls On Obama to Return $1 Billion to NC Citizens for Failure to Open Yucca Mountain and Failure to Remove Nuclear Waste from Brunswick Nuclear Plant and Others
Today, Ilario filed formal comments with the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future criticizing the Obama administration’s failure to remove nuclear waste from Progress Energy’s Brunswick nuclear plant.
“The Nuclear Waste Policy Act gave the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a September deadline to complete the license for the Yucca Mountain, Nevada waste storage facility for the waste from Brunswick and other reactors around the country,” Ilario said upon submitting his comments to the commission. “They blew it.”
Ilario’s comments were in response to the Draft Report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. The Commission was established by the Obama Administration to look at alternative ways for the country to manage dangerous nuclear waste.
Ilario emphasized four points in his comments to the Commission:
“The Nuclear Waste Policy Act gave the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a September deadline to complete the license for the Yucca Mountain, Nevada waste storage facility for the waste from Brunswick and other reactors around the country,” Ilario said upon submitting his comments to the commission. “They blew it.”
Ilario’s comments were in response to the Draft Report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. The Commission was established by the Obama Administration to look at alternative ways for the country to manage dangerous nuclear waste.
Ilario emphasized four points in his comments to the Commission:
- The communities of Brunswick County and Southeastern North Carolina want the nuclear waste removed from the Brunswick reactor site
- The Obama Administration has defied federal law (The Nuclear Waste Policy Act) that requires the government to remove the waste to the Yucca facility
- We, the Utility Rate Payers of Southeastern North Carolian, are bearing an unfair share of the cost of nuclear waste management
- Continued mismanagement of nuclear waste will curb nuclear development and hurt the local economy and jobs
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires the federal government to remove nuclear waste from the Brunswick nuclear facility and similar facilities across the country and store it at a permanent story facility at Yucca Mountain. This same law requires Progress Energy customers and other electric customers to pay into a restricted fund that is to finance the Yucca project. North Carolina families have already paid approximately $1 Billion into this fund. In his comments to the Blue Ribbon Commission, Ilario chastised the federal government for taking these funds from the people of Southeastern NC while failing to act, writing that “We are bearing the safety risk, the cost of Yucca, and the cost of DOE’s failure to remove spent nuclear fuel. That is not fair. We want our money back.”
Explaining why he submitted the comments, Ilario said, “Congressman Mike McIntyre should have been speaking up for the interests of the community on this issue over the last several years. Instead, he has remained silent as his fellow Democrats, President Obama, former Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Harry Reid, have taken our money, terminated the Yucca project, and failed to get the nuclear waste out of our community. I had to give the citizens of the 7th District a voice.”
Explaining why he submitted the comments, Ilario said, “Congressman Mike McIntyre should have been speaking up for the interests of the community on this issue over the last several years. Instead, he has remained silent as his fellow Democrats, President Obama, former Speaker Pelosi, and Majority Leader Harry Reid, have taken our money, terminated the Yucca project, and failed to get the nuclear waste out of our community. I had to give the citizens of the 7th District a voice.”
Click on the pdf below to view Ilario's full comments to the commission.
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