© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Missouri Environmental Group Sues Over Long-Term Risks Of Nuclear Waste

Ameren's Callaway Nuclear Reactor is the only commercial nuclear power plant in Missouri.
Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
Ameren's Callaway Nuclear Reactor is the only commercial nuclear power plant in Missouri.

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment is one of several groups filing suit against the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to try to get the agency to address the long-term storage of nuclear waste.

Ameren's Callaway Nuclear Reactor is the only commercial nuclear power plant in Missouri.
Credit Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
Ameren's Callaway Nuclear Reactor is the only commercial nuclear power plant in Missouri.

That suit follows similar cases filed by the states of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota.

Diane Curran is one of the attorneys representing the Coalition and other petitioners.

"The purpose of this lawsuit is to force the NRC to reckon with the serious safety and environmental risk posed by spent fuel, and also the cost of taking care of it, before they license reactors," Curran said.

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment’s Ed Smith says it’s time to stop kicking the can down the road when it comes to the risks and costs of nuclear waste.

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is not doing its job, that's what it comes down to," Smith said. "And that’s to have a plan for long term waste storage, and make sure that it’s protective of the environment."

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment has filed multiple legal challenges trying to stop the NRC from re-licensing Ameren’s Callaway Nuclear Power Plant.

Ameren's current 40-year operating license for Missouri’s only nuclear power plant expires in 2024.

Follow Véronique LaCapra on Twitter: @KWMUScience

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug while writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio pieces at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France.
Véronique LaCapra
Science reporter Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio documentaries at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France. LeCapra reported for St. Louis Public Radio from 2010 to 2016.
Related Content