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CONCORD, NH — Legislation to reinstate the law that prohibited siting a high-level radioactive waste dump in New Hampshire failed in the House on Feb. 11.
The House voted 171 to 145 to kill state Rep. Renee Cushing’s House Bill 1622.
It would have reinstated the 1986 High-Level Radioactive Waste Act that banned nuclear waste burial in New Hampshire, which had been repealed in 2011 without a hearing, paper trail or anyone noticing.
Cushing’s bill would have also required the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant to pay millions of dollars to the state annually for storing spent radioactive waste onsite in dry casks.
“This is an open invitation to the Department of Energy to again consider our state’s granite to host the toxic spent fuel from the nation’s nuclear reactors,” said Cushing, a Hampton Democrat and longtime anti-nuclear activist.
State Rep. Herbert Vadney, R-Meredith, spoke against Cushing’s bill arguing it was simply a way people opposed to nuclear power to penalize Seabrook by taxing it for storing spent fuel.
“It’s not necessary,” Vadney said of the bill. “There is pretty much zero chance the feds are going to try to store nuclear waste in New Hampshire.”
Cushing recalled the public outrage in 1985 when the U.S. Department of Energy designated New Hampshire as one of a dozen eastern states under consideration for a nuclear waste dump because of its stable granite, especially around the town of Hillsborough.
Voters in 130 towns the following year approved nonbinding resolutions at town meetings opposing siting a nuclear waste dump here, he said. The Legislature passed the High-Level Radioactive Waste Act that year as well amid much support.
Read the full story on InDepthNH.org here, including how Cushing became aware that the bill had been repealed in 2011.
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About InDepthNH: Nancy West founded the nonprofit New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism in April. West is the executive editor of the center’s investigative news website InDepthNH.org. West has won many awards for investigative reporting during her 30 years at the New Hampshire Union Leader. She has taught investigative journalism at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting’s summer program for pre-college students at Boston University. West is passionate about government transparency. The New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, formerly called Investigative News Network, which is also InDepthNH.org’s fiscal sponsor. Click here to read about INN to learn more about the mission of nonprofit news.