Protect Our Water.
Stop Creating More Nuclear Waste
Stop Transporting Radioactive Materials
Start Justice For Communities
WHAT’S AT STAKE
The Snake River Aquifer is the second largest unified aquifer on the North American continent. The aquifer flows beneath Idaho National Lab (INL), and continues westward, providing water for the Magic Valley, drinking water for more than 300,000 Idahoans, and supporting one of the state’s richest agricultural regions with a growing population and diverse economy.
INL was built in 1949 on 890 square miles of public land and today is the nation’s center for nuclear energy research and development. Intentional and accidental pollution from nuclear activities led to the Environmental Protection Agency designating INL a Superfund site in 1989.
The nuclear fuel chain creates pollution that will remain radioactive for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years. The best solution is to stop creating it.
YOU CAN HELP
We need your help to protect our water. Join our action alerts to stay in-the-know and to attend actions and events!
Claims that nuclear power is “carbon free” are false. At every step, nuclear energy produces greenhouse gasses – from the mining and enrichment of uranium, the manufacturing, transporting and reprocessing of nuclear fuel rods and waste, to the building and dismantling of the reactors.
Nuclear power is more greenhouse intensive than most renewable energy sources and energy efficiency measures. Total greenhouse emissions from nuclear power will increase even more as the world’s high-grade uranium ores are exhausted.
The nuclear energy industry is dying due to the industry’s own fatal flaws: nuclear disasters like Fukushima in 2011 and Chernobyl in 1986, decades of delay in efforts to build new plants, massive cost overruns, and overwhelming dependence on record-breaking taxpayer subsidies. Meanwhile, the rise of cheaper, safer, renewable energy has eroded the markets and interest in new nuclear plants.
OUR DEMANDS
STOP CREATING MORE RADIOACITVE WASTE AND POLLUTION
Our country still has no permanent solution for where to store nuclear waste, leaving the burden to future generations. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 required the federal government to identify a permanent geological repository—a long-term storage site. That never happened.
Even with our burgeoning radioactive waste problem, the nuclear industry has been promising a “nuclear renaissance” to solve our climate crisis, touting “advanced” nuclear reactors. Yet NuScale’s projected energy costs have nearly doubled and a recent study out of Stanford indicates the small modular nuclear reactors will exacerbate our radioactive waste problems.
STOP TRANSPORTING RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
Transporting nuclear materials by rail, truck, and barge is dangerous. Despite heavy shielding, transportation casks constantly emit some radiation which expose drivers, crew, and anyone nearby, and increase the incidence of cancers and other health problems.
In addition, our infrastructure isn’t prepared to handle thousands of shipments without risk of derailments, bridge collapses, traffic accidents, and contamination of waterways. An accident or attack on a nuclear waste shipment could release large amounts of radiation, causing the affected area to be uninhabitable for decades, exposing the community to nuclear contamination, and costing billions of dollars in damages and cleanup. According to the Federal Railroad Administration, there were 1,164 train derailments in 2022.
START JUSTICE FOR COMMUNITIES
Environmental Justice is the concept that major polluting projects should not disproportionately impact Indigenous, Black, People of Color, and low-wealth communities. These communities are susceptible to “economic blackmail”: a promise of jobs and economic development and then taken advantage of by powerful companies.
Too often, nuclear waste dumps, toxic incinerators, nuclear reactors, and other such facilities are located in communities with few resources and little political clout. Uranium mining on Navajo Nation, weapons testing on the Western Shoshone People (Newe) in Nevada, reprocessing in Piketon, Ohio, testing experimental nuclear reactors in Idaho; the communities targeted are usually working class, People of Color, and Indigenous Peoples.