Don't Make Southern Ohio a Nuclear Waste Dump!

Timothy A. Frazier, GNEP PEIS Document Manager
Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., S.W.,
Washington, DC 20585

Re: GNEP PEIS Comments on the Piketon, Ohio, site

I oppose the importation of nuclear and radioactive waste to Pike County or anywhere else in southern Ohio.  I oppose any new plan to process or reprocess nuclear materials at Piketon that is not related to clean up. I reject the cynical reference to dangerous reprocessing as "recycling." The Pike County site is not appropriate for and should not be "studied" or considered for any such activities because:

• The entities supporting the proposal have fraudulently claimed to have community and state support when the overwhelming majority of Ohioans oppose it.

• The public has been asked to comment on the Piketon GNEP proposal before the documents related to that proposal have been publicly released.

• Piketon has no Citizens Advisory Board to represent stakeholder interests.

• The site sits above a branch of the largest aquifer system in North America.

• The site is part of a complex of prehistoric earthworks, sacred to Indians of the region, and a wealth of historic properties of great cultural value surrounds the site.

• Pike County already suffers from a history of toxic dumping at the DOE site. 

• We need good and real jobs that serve local needs, not phantom promises of future jobs in hazardous industries that never materialize. 

• The site is central to an important wildlife area, home to endangered and protected species.

• Reprocessing has caused permanent plutonium contamination in every community where it's been tried, and the U.S. Department of Interior has blocked a centralized spent fuel storage facility in Utah on grounds that promises the storage would be "temporary" are meaningless.

To promote community health, preserve our natural and cultural heritage, produce good jobs, and promote a vibrant tourist economy, I as an American citizen demand that the federal reservation at Piketon be dedicated to environmental clean up, historic restoration, and non-nuclear, non-hazardous industries, with funding for clean up increased, and all waste now stored at the site removed as soon as possible.

Along with the Southern Ohio Neighbors Group, I demand that the U.S. Department of Energy:

• removes Piketon from the list of GNEP candidate sites

• terminates the GNEP "study" contract with ePIFNI and seeks reimbursement of allocated funds

• rejects all proposals for spent nuclear fuel at Piketon and terminates any contracts now in force

• reclassifies the site for long-term clean up and returns it to local ownership

• completes the treatment of onsite waste and removes it from the site as rapidly as possible

• creates a Citizens Advisory Board for stakeholders at the Pike County site immediately