for further information, contact:
Susan Gordon 505-577-8438
or local contacts listed at end of advisory
click here to view PDF

for immediate release Friday, January 29, 2010

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) is disappointed that the Department of Energy did not follow our repeated requests to appoint a balanced Blue Ribbon Commission on nuclear wastes with a broad range of perspectives, including members from directly affected sites.

“The Commission faces a huge credibility problem. It includes no one from communities downstream and downwind of major nuclear weapons sites,” said Susan Gordon, Director of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, “However, we are still hopeful that the Commission will find ways to consider a broad range of perspectives, including independent experts, public interest organizations, environmental and public health stakeholders, and impacted parties, including Native American Tribes.”

“Based on decades of experience in dealing with DOE and nuclear wastes, ANA supports interim stabilization and isolation of wastes at the point of origin in a manner that maximizes worker, public, and environmental protection,” said Don Hancock, Director of Southwest Research and Information Center’s Nuclear Waste Safety Program. “ANA and its member organizations will actively advocate that position to the Commission and expects that it will come to that same conclusion. But we are concerned that the Commission membership includes a majority of people whose past experience is to support putting waste in someone else’s backyard, rather than safely managing it at the generator site.”

ANA was also disappointed that the panel contains no outspoken critics of nuclear power. “The Commission is largely composed of die-hard nuclear boosters along with business and political leaders who will promote the industry's self interest and profits,” said Beatrice Brailsford of the Snake River Alliance in Idaho.

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) is a national network of three-dozen grassroots and national groups representing the concerns of communities near U.S. nuclear weapons sites that are directly affected by 65 years of nuclear weapons production and waste generation.

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Local Contacts:
Don Hancock Director, Nuclear Waste Safety Program, Southwest Research and Information Center 505-262-1862
Beatrice Brailsford, Program Director, Snake River Alliance 208-233-7212
Tom Clements, Southeastern Nuclear Campaign Coordinator, Friends of the Earth 803-240-7268
Gerald Pollet, Executive Director, Heart of America Northwest 206-819-9015