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NEXT STEP IN NUCLEAR 911 CAMPAIGN TO EXPAND EMERGENCY EVACATION ZONES:
ASK YOUR TOWN/CITY/COUNTY TO SUPPORT EXPANSION
April 18, 2012
Dear Friends,
On February 15, 2012, NIRS and 37 organizational co-sponsors submitted a formal Petition for Rulemaking to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expand emergency evacuation zones around U.S. reactors and improve emergency planning.
More than 4500 of you have now signed on as co-petitioners. Thank you!
We have been told by the NRC that the Petition will be published for public comment soon, probably later this month. We will let you know when that happens--we'll want as many comments as possible from all across the U.S.
But now we're moving to the next stage of this campaign: building support among local jurisdictions--and you can help.
The concept is simple. Ask your local town, city or county council to adopt a resolution in support of the petition. We've prepared a sample resolution you can present to these local officials: you can download it here.
Jurisdictions that lie within 50 miles of a reactor site, but outside the existing 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone, have the most to gain by adoption of this petition: better protection for their residents and perhaps compensation for planning and evacuation expenses.
In this election year, it shouldn't be too hard to find local officials who would be willing--even eager--to sponsor such a resolution.
The more jurisdictions that adopt such a resolution, the greater their impact will be. Then we will be moving on to the state and federal levels.
Besides political jurisdictions, the resolution can easily be modified for adoption by just about any organization--such as labor union locals, PTAs, church groups, and so on. We hope you'll present it for adoption to any and every organization you belong to. But please make sure to let us know of any organizations and/or local governments that adopt the resolution (or something similar) and to let the NRC know too. We'll soon be adding a list of governmental/organizational adopters to our website.
In the meantime, if you have questions about how to do this or about the issues, please contact Dominique French at NIRS.
A sheet of citations that support the resolution along with other helpful background information on emergency planning, as well as the text of the Petition for Rulemaking, can be found on this page.
Improving emergency planning is, of course, no substitute for shutting down nuclear reactors--and attaining a nuclear-free, carbon-free future as quickly as possible is our goal. But there are 104 reactors operating in the U.S., and unfortunately, they're not going to close tomorrow. Until these reactors are closed, the American people deserve better protection than we're getting now.
Thank you for your help! And if you can help support the Nuclear 911 Campaign with a tax-deductible donation, we would be very grateful.
Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org
P.S. if you haven't yet sent a letter to President Obama & Energy Secretary Chu urging them to stop the $8.3 Billion taxpayer loan for new reactors in Georgia, please do so now here. This is a winnable battle if enough of us act. Nearly 9,000 letters have gone in so far; but we'll need more than that.
Stay Informed:
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