BOISE, Idaho -- The U.S. Senate has passed a massive infrastructure bill, and buried within the package is $12 billion for the nuclear industry, but critics said the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Half of the money is reserved for nuclear facilities under threat of shutting down due to economic factors. The other half is for research and development, such as on the small modular nuclear reactor model being built in Idaho.

Tim Judson, executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said the industry as a whole is struggling, with even the Idaho project being scaled back.

"By propping up the existing reactors and preventing them from being replaced with renewable energy, the nuclear industry's essentially trying to keep sort of a foothold in the energy system until they can try to ram some of these new reactor projects like the one in Idaho through, if it ever happens," Judson asserted.

He hopes the U.S. House makes changes to the investments in nuclear. The industry and some environmental groups have touted nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuels as the country moves toward clean energy sources.

Judson noted it is a big deal many nuclear power plants need a bailout, adding it is as if nuclear companies are holding cities and states hostage.

"It's been this kind of perpetual process of a power plant's closure being announced, the company demanding a bailout, the state not knowing what else to do, so it gives the bailout," Judson recounted. "And this federal subsidy is going to be the same thing. There's no planning procedure included in this legislation."

He argued there needs to be more consideration about what to do with old power plants and aging infrastructure.

Judson pointed out another bill in Congress could provide up to $50 billion in subsidies for the industry over the next decade.

According to his organization's research, it will not mean any new jobs and the money would be more beneficially spent on electricity projects such as renewables, transmission systems and battery storage.

"If you spent that $50 billion on those things, it would create more than 60,000 new jobs," Judson emphasized. "And that's more than four times the number of workers that are employed at these nuclear plants that would get bailed out."

Environmental groups in Tennessee will soon learn more about the approval process behind a radioactive waste landfill which has been processing and storing highly enriched uranium for six decades.

The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sued the Environmental Protection Agency to gain access to documents related to the approval of the Y12 Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge.

Jeff Ruch, Pacific director for the group, explained the landfill is being built despite objections from senior government officials. He said they used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the documents and the EPA has agreed to provide 400 documents a month, through September.

"The fact that EPA is not being candid about this indicates that they have something to hide," Ruch contended. "And they've already produced several hundred documents, almost none of which are substantive. We do a lot of FOIA litigation and for us, it's a kind of a safe form of whistleblowing."

Ruch pointed out one issue is the Clean Water Act protections for the streams running by the landfill and emptying into other bodies of water have been set aside. He added unacceptable levels of radiation in the water will affect the fish and wildlife. Critics of the uranium-enriching process say it poses safety and health risks to Tennesseans.

Tanvi Kardile, coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, said her group continues to raise concerns to local communities and lawmakers about what it sees as the environmental hazards and public health risks tied to creating a landfill for toxic waste.

"Oak Ridge has pretty high cancer rates already, because of the Y12 weapons complex," Kardile asserted. "As an organization, we're worried about the increase of cancer rates because of a radioactive waste landfill."

"We all live downriver from Hanford," is the message painted on the windows of the Patagonia store in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. It is a reminder of the continuing danger created by the remaining toxic nuclear waste at the Hanford Site in Benton County.

Advocates with the nonprofit Hanford Challenge painted the mural to remind people everyone will suffer if the waste seeps into the groundwater and into the Columbia River.

Nikolas Peterson, executive director of the Hanford Challenge, tracks the cleanup efforts.

"We are holding the federal government -- the contractors doing this work -- accountable," Peterson explained. "To make sure that they don't walk away from this cleanup and leave a mess that future generations will have to deal with."

During World War II, U.S. government nuclear scientists at Hanford created the plutonium used in atomic bombs, contaminating the soil and leaving behind 56 million gallons of high-level toxic waste. The current plan is to transform much of the waste into a glasslike material, put it in steel tanks and bury it underground.

The Yakama Nation's Environmental Restoration/Waste Management program has teamed up with the nonprofit Columbia Riverkeeper to teach future generations about the ongoing cleanup and offer field trips to the site.

Peterson noted his organization is working to get Hanford into the standard curriculum in all Washington state high schools.

"We want people, in especially the Pacific Northwest, to really take ownership of Hanford," Peterson emphasized. "And we can demand a better and safer cleanup for all of us."

The U.S. Department of Energy maintains a page dedicated to the Hanford Site cleanup. People interested in volunteering can contact Hanford Challenge and Columbia Riverkeeper.


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A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing health and safety concerns about the development of a landfill for radioactive waste from the Y12 Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge.

For six decades, Y12 has been processing and storing highly enriched uranium.

Tanvi Kardile, coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, said her group is raising concerns to the community and lawmakers about what it sees as the environmental hazards and public health risks that come with creating a landfill for toxic waste.

"There's been some violations with the Clean Water Act," Kardile pointed out. "Right now, a radioactive waste landfill in Oak Ridge is approved to be built, but this required waiving the Clean Water Act rules. So, there's upcoming litigation around this."

Kardile noted the landfill concerns are in addition to the ongoing threat of radioactive contamination in Oak Ridge's land, water and air due to the Y12 weapons complex activities. She stressed the issue is not new, citing a lawsuit against the Department of Energy over mercury released decades ago. Critics of the uranium-enriching process say it poses safety and health risks to the community.

According to Kardile, she has spoken directly with Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration officials, raising her group's objections to the $8 billion Y12 processing facility over serious health concerns. But proponents of the weapons plant point to the jobs and economic impact it has for the local area.

"They're not concerned about environmental issues at all," Kardile observed. "They were like, 'This is necessary for our nation's security,' like building our nuclear weapons stockpile is 'necessary.' So, it's something that we have to do. And they also said that it provides jobs for people in the area."

Kardile acknowledged the Alliance does not want to see anyone lose their job, but said closing the facility would also provide employment opportunities through an extensive cleanup phase. The latest defense spending bill, approved by both houses of Congress in July, authorized $760 million for Y12's Uranium Processing Facility.