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Tour visits El Paso to bring awareness of proposed nuclear dump in West Texas

Rudy Gutierrez
EL PASO TIMES
Tom Smith, director of special projects for the group Public Citizen helps inflate a full-scale mock radioactive waste transport canister Friday at the start of a press conference to oppose a proposal to build a high-level radioactive waste dump in West Texas.

Opponents of a proposed radioactive waste facility in West Texas made a stop in El Paso as part of a statewide tour.

Several groups expressed concerns about the transportation of canisters of radioactive waste via rail cars to a proposed facilities near Andrews, Texas, and across the state line in New Mexico.

Andrews is about 35 miles north of Odessa.

The Protect Texas from Radioactive Waste Tour had a news conference Friday near railroad tracks in Downtown El Paso to voice concern about the plan, which they say would transport giant canisters full of radioactive rods via rail car from nuclear power plants located around the country.  

The Protect Texas from Radioactive Waste Tour press conference included from left: Diane D’Arrigo, Kerstin Rudek, Karen Hadden, Guillermo Glenn, Hilda Villegas and Tom Smith.

The state-wide tour, put on by SEED Coalition, Public Citizen, Beyond Nuclear was joined in El Paso by Familias Unidas del Chamizal and cited the risk of accidents, leaks or terrorism if the waste is transported through densely populated centers.

The tour warns that the public has until Oct. 19 to voice concerns about the plan to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The group provided the website www.NoNuclearWaste.org for more information.

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