Dear Readers,
"Clamshell-TVS.org", the umbrella organization which hosted "THE NO NUKER" has closed due to a lack of funding.
While THE NO NUKER will no longer provide its edited news selection, it will keep all links to resources open, as well as a constant stream of relevant news from all over the world, as offered by GOOGLE.
All past news material are archived here and easily searchable.
No Nukes !
lioneldelevingne@gmail.com
Bloomberg.com: Germany: "German Nuclear Exit Should Be Reversed, Ministry Taskforce Says
By Patrick Donahue
Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The German government should abandon its planned phase-out of nuclear energy to help rein in surging electricity prices and protect the environment, according to proposals drawn up by an energy taskforce under Economy Minister Michael Glos."
August 5, 2008
Below is a copy of a memo we received today from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission concerning a public meeting in Oswego, New York on August 21, 2008, to discuss the upcoming application for a Construction/Operating License for a new atomic reactor at Nine Mile Point. We hope as many of you as possible will make it to this meeting and let Unistar and the NRC know that New York opposes new reactors!
NIRS is actively working against a similar reactor Unistar has proposed for Maryland. Feel free to contact us if we can provide more information about the NRC’s licensing process or anything else.
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org
301-270-6477
July 30, 2008
MEMORANDUM TO: Joseph Colaccino, Chief
EPR Projects Branch
Division of New Reactor Licensing
Office of New Reactors
FROM: Michael A. Canova, Project Manager /RA/ for
EPR Projects Branch
Division of New Reactor Licensing
Office of New Reactors
SUBJECT: PUBLIC OUTREACH MEETING ON THE COMBINED LICENSE
APPLICATION PROCESS FOR THE PROPOSED NINE MILE POINT
UNIT 3 NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
DATE & TIME: August 21, 2008
6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
LOCATION: SUNY Oswego – Sheldon Hall
7060 Route 104
Oswego, NY 13126
PURPOSE: The U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff will discuss the role that the NRC will play in the anticipated review of the UniStar’s application for a combined license including details of the safety and environmental reviews. A key topic is how and when the public may participate in NRC processes, if so desired. The public is encouraged to ask questions about the NRC’s review of the Nine Mile Point Unit 3 combined license application (COLA).
CATEGORY 3: * This is a Category 3 Meeting. The public is invited to participate in this
meeting by providing comments and asking questions throughout the
meeting.
CONTACTS: Primary
Michael A. Canova, NRO/DNRL Surinder Arora, NRO/DNRL
301-415-0737 301-415-1421
michael.canova@nrc.gov surinder.arora@nrc.gov
*Commission's Policy Statement on AEnhancing Public Participation in NRC Meetings@
(67 FR 36920), May 28, 2002
PARTICIPANTS: Participants from the NRC include the following members from the Office
of New Reactors (NRO).
NRC
J. Colaccino, NRO
M. Canova, NRO
S. Arora, NRO
P. Brandt, NRO
J. Jennings, NRO
L. Rakovan, EDO, et al.
ADAMS ACCESSION NO.: ML082120125 NRC-001
OFFICE PM:DNRL/NARP/NRO LA:DNRL/NARP/NRO BC:DNRL/NARP/NRO
NAME GTesfaye for MCanova JMcLellan JColaccino
DATE 7/30/2008 7/30/2008 7/30/2008
OFFICIAL RECORD COPY
OPEN HOUSE AND PUBLIC OUTREACH MEETING
UNISTAR APPLICATION FOR A COMBINED LICENSE
Nine Mile Point Unit 3
August 21, 2008
Time
(approximate)
Topic Presenter
6:00 p.m. Open House (Sheldon Hall Lower Lobby) NRC
7:00 p.m. Public Outreach Meeting Begins. (Sheldon Hall
Ballroom)
Introductions/Opening Remarks
NRC
7:15 p.m. NC Staff Presentations
• NRC: Who We Are And What We Do
• Overview of COLA Review Process
o Safety Review
o Environmental Review
o How the public may participate
• Construction Inspection
NRC
7:45 p.m. Open forum for public questions and comments on
NRC processes with regard to Nine Mile Point Unit 3.
9:30 p.m.
Adjourn
prepared by Alexander Lee/Clamshell Yahoo Group
John McCain has consistently misrepresented Senator Obama's position on nuclear energy and we suspect that he may well do so again today when he discusses the issue in Michigan. Below is information to ensure you have a clear sense of where both Senator Obama and Senator McCain stand on the issue...
Barack Obama supports safe and secure nuclear energy. Nuclear power represents more than 70 percent of our noncarbon generated electricity. It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power as an option. However, before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, Obama thinks key issues must be addressed including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation. Barack Obama introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to establish guidelines for tracking, controlling and accounting for spent fuel at nuclear power plants. To prevent international nuclear material from falling into terrorist hands abroad, Obama worked closely with Sen. Dick Lugar (R‐IN) to strengthen international efforts to identify and stop the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction. As president, Obama will make safeguarding nuclear material both abroad and in the U.S. atop anti‐terrorism priority. In terms of waste storage, Obama does not believe that Yucca Mountain is a suitable site. He will lead federal efforts to look for safe, long‐term disposal solutions based on objective, scientific analysis. In the meantime, Obama will develop requirements to ensure that the waste stored at current reactor sites is contained using the most advanced dry‐cask storage technology available.
MCCAIN'S CLAIM THAT OBAMA OPPOSES NUCLEAR POWER IS "FALSE"
Annenberg/UPenn Factcheck.org: "The McCain Ad Also Portrays Obama As Saying 'No' To Nuclear" And That's "False." Factcheck.org wrote, "The McCain ad also portrays Obama as saying 'no to clean, safe, nuclear energy.' That's false. Obama has said he's open to building new nuclear plants if they are clean and safe. As we noted in a recent article, McCain bases his claim on a partial quote from Obama from a town hall meeting in Newton, Iowa, on Dec. 30, 2007. Obama had been asked whether he was 'truly comfortable' with the safety of nuclear power. Obama, Dec. 30, 2007: 'I start off with the premise that nuclear energy is not optimal. ... I am not a nuclear energy proponent.' If that was all Obama said it would not make him an opponent of nuclear power, of course. It would make him 'Dr. Maybe,' but not 'Dr. No.' And In fact, Obama went on to say later in the same response: Obama, Dec. 30, 2007: 'There is no perfect energy source. Everything has some problems right now. We haven't found it yet. Now I trust in our ingenuity. ... I have not ruled out nuclear as part of that [$150 billion proposed energy research] package, but only so far as it is clean and safe.' Furthermore, the energy plan Obama released in October 2007 said: 'It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power from the table.'… It's inaccurate to cast Obama as an opponent, and McCain goes too far when he portrays Obama as saying 'no' to nuclear." [Factcheck.org, 6/26/08
OBAMA HAS CONSISTENLY BEEN OPEN TO MORE NUCLEAR POWER
Obama position on Nuclear power: Nuclear power represents more than 70 percent of our noncarbon generated electricity. It is unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate nuclear power from the table. However, there is no future for expanded nuclear without first addressing four key issues: public right-to-know, security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation. Barack Obama introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to establish guidelines for tracking, controlling and accounting for spent fuel at nuclear power plants. To prevent international nuclear material from falling into terrorist hands abroad, Obama worked closely with Sen. Dick Lugar (R – IN) to strengthen international efforts to identify and stop the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction. As president, Obama will make safeguarding nuclear material both abroad and in the U.S. a top anti-terrorism priority. Obama will also lead federal efforts to look for a safe, long-term disposal solution based on objective, scientific analysis. In the meantime, Obama will develop requirements to ensure that the waste stored at current reactor sites is contained using the most advanced dry-cask storage technology available. Barack Obama believes that Yucca Mountain is not an option. Our government has spent billions of dollars on Yucca Mountain, and yet there are still significant questions about whether nuclear waste can be safely stored there. [http://www.barackobama.com/issues/pdf/EnergyFactSheet.pdf]
· Obama: Nuclear Power Isn't A Panacea But We Should Invest In R&D To See If We Can Store It Safely Since It Doesn't Emit Greenhouse Gasses. Obama said, "I've said this before, I don't think that nuclear power is a panacea. But I also think that given that it doesn't emit greenhouse gases, for us to invest some R&D into seeing whether we can store nuclear waste safely, or reuse it. These are all areas where the market interacting with a clear set of rules by the federal government and billions of dollars devoted to research and development can, I think, trigger the kind of economic growth that we haven't seen in this country for a long time." [Obama Remarks, 6/20/08
· Obama Said We Have To Look At Nuclear And It Can Be An Effective Option If We Figure Out The Storage And Safety Issues. Obama said on Meet The Press, "I think we do have to look at nuclear, and what we've got to figure out is can we store the material properly? Can we make sure that they're secure? Can we deal with the expense? Because the problem is, is that a lot of our nuclear industry, it reinvents the wheel. Each nuclear power plant that is proposed has a new design, has--it, it has all kinds of changes, there are all sorts of cost overruns. So it has not been an effective option. That doesn't mean that it can't be an effective option, but we're going to have to figure out storage and safety issues. And my attitude when it comes to energy is there's no silver bullet. We've got to be--we've, we've got to look at every possible option." [Meet The Press, 5/4/08
· Obama Said He Would Explore Safer Ways To Use Nuclear Power And Accelerate Research Into Technologies That Safe Storage Technologies. "We will also explore safer ways to use nuclear power, which right now accounts for more than 70% of our non-carbon generated electricity. We should accelerate research into technologies that will allow for the safe, secure treatment of nuclear waste. As President, I'll continue the work I began in the Senate to ensure that all nuclear material is stored, secured and accounted for - both at home and around the world. There should be no short cuts or regulatory loopholes - period." [Speech On Clean Energy Future, 10/3/07]
· Obama: We Can't Take Nuclear Power Off The Table. Obama said, "I don't think that we can take nuclear power off the table. What we have to make sure of is that we have the capacity to store it properly and safely, and that we reduce whatever threats might come from terrorism. And if we can do that in a technologically sound way, then we should pursue it. If we can't, we should not. But there is no magic bullet on energy. We're going to have to look at all the various options to reduce greenhouse gases and to put us on a path to energy independence." [Democratic Debate, 9/26/07
OBAMA WAS ATTACKED IN THE PRIMARY FOR HIS OPENNESS TO NUCLEAR POWER
· Obama Contrasted With Edwards, Said We Should Explore Nuclear Power As Part Of The Energy Mix. After John Edwards said he opposed nuclear plants, Obama said, "I actually think that we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix. There are no silver bullets to this issue. We have to develop solar. I have proposed drastically increasing fuel efficiency standards on cars, an aggressive cap on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted. But we're going to have to try a series of different approaches." [Youtube Debate, 8/13/07
· Edwards Attacked Obama For Being "Open To The Possibility Of Additional Power Plants" And Obama Defended Himself Saying That The Country Should "Create A Menu Of Energy Options." Edwards "added that, unlike Senator Obama and Senator Clinton, he is completely opposed to the building of more nuclear power plants—a point he so often makes when addressing voters on the campaign trail. Edwards said that Obama is 'open to the possibility of additional power plants' and that Clinton has said she is 'agnostic' on the subject. Obama defended himself, saying that he has long been a critic of Yucca Mountain, yet added that the country should "create a menu of energy options" in handling the storage of nuclear waste and 'see where the science and the technology and the entrepreneurship of the American people take us.'" [Fox News, 1/17/08
· NYT: Edwards "Eagerly Pointed Out" That A Difference Between Him And Obama Was That Obama Has Been Supportive Of Building More Nuclear Power Plants. "Mr. Edwards also eagerly pointed out a difference between himself and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois: Nuclear power. 'I'm very strongly against building any more nuclear power plants,' Mr. Edwards said. 'I think it is an inviting terrorist target. I'm against it. I think Senator Obama has in the past been supportive of building more nuclear power plants,' he continued. 'We just have a difference on that issue -– and that's an issue that people should be aware of.'" [New York Times, 12/16/07
MCCAIN RECORD ON NUCLEAR WASTE
McCain Claims on Job Creation Unrealistic: McCain claimed that his plan to build 45 new nuclear plants will create 700,000 jobs, a claim that has no basis in fact. In order for that to be case, each plant would have to create 15,556 unique jobs (meaning no construction workers from one plant would be used to help build others). Even the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry's trade association isn't that bullish on nuclear plants. They say the average nuclear plant.
· employs 1,400 to 1,800 people during construction (with peak employment as high as 2,400)
· employs 400 to 700 people long-term, at salaries typically substantially higher than the average salaries in the local area.
· creates economic activity that generates 400 to 700 additional jobs locally
· Total jobs per plant (2,200-3,800)
Even under this rosy industry-created scenario, McCain's math is not even in the ballpark. [http://www.nei.org/keyissues/newnuclearplants/economicbenefitsofnewnuclearplants/]
McCain Has Consistently Voted to Approve Yucca Mountain As A Nuclear Waste Dump Site. In 2002, John McCain voted to approve a site at Yucca Mountain as a repository for nuclear and radioactive waste. After the vote, McCain said that storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would answer "one of the most important environmental, health and public safety issues for the American people." In 2000, McCain voted to override the presidential veto of legislation that would establish a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. In 1997, McCain similarly voted to establish a repository at the Mountain. McCain voted yes on a similar bill in 1996. [2002 Senate Vote #167, 7/9/2002; The Arizona Republic, 7/10/2002; 2000 Senate Vote #88, 5/2/2000; 1998 Senate Vote #148, 6/2/1998; 1997 Senate Vote #42, 4/15/1997; 1996 Senate Vote #259, 7/31/1996; 1996 Senate Vote #256, 7/31/1996]
McCain: "I Am For Yucca Mountain." The Las Vegas Sun reported that in 2007 McCain told the Deseret News, "I am for Yucca Mountain. I'm for storage facilities. It's a lot better than sitting outside power plants all over America." [Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, NV), 5/28/08]
McCain: "I Believe That Yucca Mountain Is A Suitable Place For Storage." At a campaign event in Springfield, Pennsylvania, McCain said, "I believe that Yucca Mountain is a suitable place for storage and I know that there's controversy about it and lawsuits and all that. But shouldn't America, a country as smart and as wise as we are, be able to find a place to store spent fuel?" [CNN Live Feed (Springfield, PA), 3/14/08]
McCain Senior Adviser Holtz-Eakin Called Political Opposition To Yucca Mountain "Harmful To the U.S. Interests." "McCain criticized both Democrats for their opposition to Yucca Mountain. 'The political opposition to the Yucca Mountain storage facility is harmful to the U.S. interest and the facility should be completed, opened and utilized,' McCain adviser Holtz-Eakin said." [Reuters, 5/6/08]
Plutonium leak at our Vienna laboratory, IAEA confirms - Yahoo! News
VIENNA (AFP) - Plutonium leaked overnight in an ageing laboratory operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) near Vienna, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Sunday.
| ADVERTISEMENT |
WCSH6.com | Portland, ME |: "Republican presidential candidate John McCain says the long-dormant Seabrook (New Hampshire) Unit 2 may fit into his plan for 45 additional nuclear power plants in nation in the next two decades."
100 employees contaminated at France nuclear site - USATODAY.com: "PARIS (AP) — Radioactive particles spewed from a pipe at a French nuclear reactor on Wednesday, slightly contaminating 100 employees, a spokeswoman for the national electric company said."
Nuclear "Renaissance" Dismissed as a "Carefully Fabricated Illusion" | Center for Media and Democracy
Asked why people like Patrick Moore and Stewart Brand, who made their name as environmentalists are now nuclear power advocates, the highly regarded energy efficiency analyst Amory Lovins was blunt: "I think they haven't done their homework. And I keep asking for their analysis and not getting it, because I don't think they have one." Nuclear power, he argues, is no solution to global warming. "If you buy more nuclear plants, you're going to get about two to ten times less climate solution per dollar, and you'll get it about twenty to forty times slower" than efficient use of electricity, renewables and micropower, he said. Lovins is also dismissive of claims that a "nuclear renaissance" is sweeping the world. "It's a very carefully fabricated illusion. And the reason it isn't happening is there are no buyers. That is, Wall Street is not putting a penny of private capital into the industry, despite 100-plus percent subsidies," he told Amy Goodman.
Anti-Nuclear Advocates Receive JBL Awards from Tides Foundation | News Room | Tides: "'As the nation and the world struggle to reduce green house gas emissions in an effort to slow climate change, and to find alternatives to fossil fuel energy sources, nuclear power is back on the table as a viable energy option,' said Drummond Pike, CEO and founder, Tides. 'However, nuclear power remains a dangerous and flawed solution. From the mining of uranium to storage of spent fuel, it creates an unacceptable chain of destruction and risk. Glenn Carroll, Paul Gunter, and Arjun Makhijani are working to halt nuclear energy production and to call attention to its abuses and dangers; and we are so pleased to honor them with the JBL Award.'"
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY NETWORK from Ken Bossong
On July 31, our colleague - the Sustainable Energy Coalition – will be hosting the 11th Annual Congressional Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency EXPO + Forum in the Cannon Office Building of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, DC. The event is being co-sponsored by Members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Caucuses.
The day-long program, which is free and open to the public, will bring together nearly 50 exhibitors representing the cross-section of sustainable energy technologies. A morning news conference with Members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives as well as a series of afternoon speakers will address the status, economics, benefits, and near-term potential of sustainable energy technologies to address rising energy prices, increased reliance on energy imports, and climate change.
We are therefore writing to you for three reasons:
First, if you plan to be in the Washington DC area on Thursday - July 31, we invite and encourage you to attend the EXPO. No RSVP is required.
Second, we would welcome your sharing information about this event with any, and all, members of the news media, businesses, non-profit organizations, students, or other interested members of the general public. A flier describing the EXPO is attached; please feel free to forward it to any contacts you may have.
Third – and perhaps most importantly – we would like to request your assistance in encouraging Members of Congress and their staff to attend this event.
As you know, Congress currently is considering a range of energy-related issues including climate change legislation, annual appropriations bills, initiatives to extend the renewable energy and energy efficiency production tax and investment tax credits, and proposals to expand domestic oil & gas drilling plus new incentives for fossil fuels and nuclear power. We believe the EXPO offers an unparalleled opportunity for sustainable energy advocates to educate Members of Congress about the role of sustainable energy technologies and the policy options that would affect their development.
However, as a first step, it is necessary to get the Members and their staff to attend the EXPO. And inasmuch as most Members try to be responsive to their constituents, we hope that you would be willing to telephone, e-mail, or fax a request to your congressional delegation and encourage their attendance.
Accordingly, we have attached a suggested letter for your use. Feel free to personalize it with your own letterhead and/or name and to edit the text to highlight any policy issues you would like to stress.
If you wish to telephone your congressional delegation, the main switchboard number for the U.S. Capitol is 202-224-3121.
If you wish to e-mail or fax your Senators and/or Representatives, you can find their contact information by going to either www.house.gov or www.senate.gov. (We advise against mailing letters since there is a one or two week security delay in delivering “snail mail.”)
Thank you very much for any assistance you may be able to give in helping to spread the word about the 11th Annual Congressional Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency EXPO + Forum.
NOTE: Additional details about the EXPO can be found at www.sustainableenergycoalition.org.
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY NETWORK
8606 Greenwood Avenue, #2
Takoma Park, MD 20912
Sustainable-energy-network@hotmail.com
Incidents raise questions about French nuclear safety - USATODAY.com: "PARIS (AP) — First, an overflowing tub at a French nuclear plant spilled uranium into the groundwater. Then a burst pipe leaked uranium at another nuclear site, raising an alert on Friday."
The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Harvey Wasserman
Bit by bit, Al Gore seems to be inching toward a Solartopian view of a future that must be completely sustainable in green energy. This week he advocated getting to an electric power system that is "carbon free" within ten years.
Utilities must be up front about the costs of nuclear power -- OrlandoSentinel.com: "The Florida Legislature may have provided the biggest carrot. In 2006, it drastically reduced a utility's financial risk by allowing it to start passing the costs of a new nuclear plant on to its customers before construction even begins. And, if the power company decides to stop construction, customers are likely still on the hook for whatever money was spent up to the time the project is terminated."
Utilities must be up front about the costs of nuclear power -- OrlandoSentinel.com: "The Florida Legislature may have provided the biggest carrot. In 2006, it drastically reduced a utility's financial risk by allowing it to start passing the costs of a new nuclear plant on to its customers before construction even begins. And, if the power company decides to stop construction, customers are likely still on the hook for whatever money was spent up to the time the project is terminated."
Utilities must be up front about the costs of nuclear power -- OrlandoSentinel.com: "The Florida Legislature may have provided the biggest carrot. In 2006, it drastically reduced a utility's financial risk by allowing it to start passing the costs of a new nuclear plant on to its customers before construction even begins. And, if the power company decides to stop construction, customers are likely still on the hook for whatever money was spent up to the time the project is terminated."
French nuclear facility to shut down after uranium leak - Yahoo! News: "LYON, France (AFP) - French authorities ordered Friday the temporary closure of a nuclear treatment plant in a popular tourist region of southern France after a uranium leak polluted the local water supply."
Brown calls for eight new nuclear plants | Environment | The Guardian: "Britain must build 'at least' eight new nuclear power stations during the next 15 years to replace its ageing plants and contribute to a 'post-oil economy' that is cleaner and much more efficient than in the era of 'cheap energy and careless pollution', Gordon Brown signalled last night. The first new reactors could feed electricity into the national grid by 2017."
Eiffel Tower anti-nuclear protest | Greenpeace International: "PARIS, France — French state nuclear company Areva sponsored a ring of golden European Union stars for the Eiffel Tower, to mark France's term as EU president. Today, we added a nuclear hazard symbol."
Phasing out of the nuclear age
NEWS FROM FRANCE. JULY 12 Major anti nuclear demonstration planned.
BEYOND NUCLEAR from Wahington DC will be there representing the US ...
France's Areva says uranium leaked into river
| Environment
| Reuters: "PARIS (Reuters) - French nuclear firm Areva said on Tuesday 30 cubic meters of a liquid containing natural uranium was accidentally poured on the ground and into a river at a site in southeastern France."
Урядовий портал :: News
International organizations help Chornobyl-affected territories in Rivne region
21.06.2008 | 17:28 | Ukrinform
In frames of the Chornobyl Recovery and Development Program, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) helped to create cultivated grasslands in Rokytne district, Volyn region (West Ukraine) polluted as a result of the Chornobyl disaster. Due to the funds earmarked, grasses were sowed on the polluted lands able to absorb a technogenic cesium-137.
Among the projects implemented by international organizations in Rivne region is a UN grant for reconstruction of schools, youth centers, medical-midwife stations. Apart from this, educational campaigns were held in the region as well - production of information bulletins for distribution in schools and hospitals, children are supplied with vitamins etc.
*The Solar Rollers*_ will be making an historical, anniversary biking
trip this summer.
Starting with a kick off rally in Vernon on August, 10th and ending with
a closing rally in Montpelier on August 25th, we will be biking the
state, raising awareness about the need to STOP THE RELICENCING OF
ENTERGY/VERMONT YANKEE when it comes up for a vote in Jan/Feb '09.
If you are interested in riding for a day or more, driving the "sag
wagon" or helping to organize housing or community potlucks along the
route....PLEASE be in touch. We can use you!! For more info contact:
solarollers@gmail.com Peg Alden (802)387-4845 David Detmold
(413)863-8666 Cosponsored by Citizen's Awareness Network & Vermont
Yankee Decommissioning Alliance
Bloomberg.com:
Latin America: "July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil plans to set up partnerships with local and foreign companies to build nuclear power plants, Science and Technology Minister Sergio Rezende said."
Auditors: Nuclear plants not following fire rules: Financial News - Yahoo!
Finance: "The Government Accountability Office said there were 125 fires reported at 54 power plants since 1995, an average of nearly 10 a year, although none threatened safe emergency reactor shutdown or posed any significant safety threats. The fires were mostly electrical or maintenance related."
US nuclear to grow, but not fast enough: "Current US policies are not enough to give nuclear power a leading role in climate protection. Although policies would promote�a 15% increase in nuclear power capacity by 2030, American energy use overall would grow by 19%, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 16%."
China wants 100 Westinghouse reactors - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "China wants to have 100 of Westinghouse Electric Co.'s nuclear reactors in operation or under construction by 2020 -- more than double what was anticipated, according to the company's incoming CEO.
Aris Candris, who will lead the Monroeville-based firm beginning Tuesday, said Chinese officials shared those plans with Westinghouse during a mid-May meeting.
'It is huge,' Candris said in an interview Thursday with the Tribune-Review. 'Originally we were thinking somewhere around 40.'
'This is the beginning of the nuclear renaissance,'"
Portal:Nuclear Issues - SourceWatch: "The Nuclear Issues portal is intended to help readers find out more about those behind the global push to revive the nuclear power and and nuclear weapons industry. It also aims to facilitate citizen journalists document the activities of the individuals, lobby groups, PR companies, trade associations and front groups promoting what has been dubbed the 'nuclear renaissance'. Every aspect of the nuclear industry will be covered from uranium exploration and mining, the nuclear power industry, spent fuel reprocessing, nuclear waste disposal and weapons proliferation.
This portal is a joint project between the Center for Media and Democracy and the U.K.-based Spinwatch. A substantial proportion of the articles in the Nuclear Issues portal originated from Nuclear Spin, a project of Spinwatch."
TVA activist jumps back into fray | www.tennessean.com | The Tennessean: "ROCKWOOD, Tenn. — Activists and whistle-blowers who first fought efforts 40 years ago to build nuclear power plants are re-emerging for a new fight as momentum for more reactors grows in what is being called a 'nuclear renaissance.'"
Business Week 
Nuclear's Tangled Economics:
John McCain says new plants can help solve the energy crisis and address climate change. It's not that simple
by John Carey
To power America's future, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) has an energy plan with a distinctly French accent. 'The French are able to generate 80% of their electricity with nuclear power,' the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee points out. 'There's no reason why America shouldn't.'"
Former TVA chairman rips agency's nuclear plans - News Wires - CNBC.com: "'I am appalled at the idea that the Tennessee Valley Authority is going back to nuclear power after the experience we had with it,' Freeman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. 'Frankly, of all the places on Earth where nuclear power failed, it was here in the valley.' The federal agency still has more than $20 billion in debt on its books due largely to that previous nuclear push, and Freeman worries ratepayers will be facing billions of dollars more to build Bellefonte."
News - Clean Edge - The Clean-Tech Market Authority: "New Study Finds that Solar Could Provide 10 Percent of U.S. Electricity Generation by 2025"
Mega Disasters : Glow Train Catastrophe
Airs TONIGHT Tuesday 6/24 10:00 PM
on The History Channel
The U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission plan to transport 77,000 tons of nuclear waste to a permanent storage facility 950 feet below Nevada's Yucca Mountain. If the plan goes through, much of the cargo will travel through Las Vegas, making an accident there a very disturbing possibility. If history has taught us anything, it's that transporting dangerous goods can sometimes have catastrophic results. Take a look at the potential disaster that such a rail accident would have in Las Vegas.
Obama: Nuclear power worth considering, not panacea
| Markets
| Reuters: "CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Friday nuclear power was 'not a panacea' for U.S. energy woes but it is worth investigating its further development."
Algeria, France sign nuclear energy deal_English_Xinhua: "ALGIERS, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Algeria and France Saturday inked an agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, including cooperation in research, training and uranium exploration."
Global investors circle new nuclear markets: "Investors see the USA as the best place in the world to engage in nuclear build projects. Next come the UK and China, followed by South Africa. Banks and utilities, however, are yet to make serious moves.
�"
TheStar.com | Speakout | Voices: Nuclear power
Reinvestment in nuclear power, a power source with an unknown final cost given the very long term storage cost of spent fuel and other decommissioning costs, is short sighted and will act to slow investment in "new" technologies.
Why Is Bush Helping Saudi Arabia Build Nukes? - WSJ.com
Here's a quick geopolitical quiz: What country is three times the size of Texas and has more than 300 days of blazing sun a year? What country has the world's largest oil reserves resting below miles upon miles of sand? And what country is being given nuclear power, not solar, by President George W. Bush, even when the mere assumption of nuclear possession in its region has been known to provoke pre-emptive air strikes, even wars?
Sustainable Energy News Summaries - June 15, 2008
Below please find summaries of sustainable energy news stories from the past week. The news stories address developments in renewable energy and energy efficiency particularly as they present solutions to climate change, rising energy costs, expanding energy imports, and nuclear power. You may find some of these stories of use to you in your own work.
This compilation was prepared by the SUN DAY Campaign which publishes a longer, daily compliation of such stories. If you are interested in becoming a member of the SUN DAY Campaign, please see the information attached.
The news stories summarized below do not necessarily reflect the views of either the SUN DAY Campaign or the Sustainable Energy Network.
1.) Poll Reports 94% of Americans Say It's Important for the U.S. to Develop and Use Solar Energy:
Solar Energy Industries Association, June 10, 2008
http://www.seia.org/solarnews.php?id=184
A vast majority of Americans, across all political parties, overwhelmingly support development and funding of solar energy. These findings were reported today in the SCHOTT Solar Barometer, a nationally representative survey conducted by the independent polling firm, Kelton Research.
- 98% of Independents, 97% of Democrats, and 91% of Republicans support development of solar.
- 74% of Independents, 72% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans favor extension of Federal tax credits for renewable technologies.
- 77% of Americans feel Federal government should make solar power development a national priority
==================================
2.) As Energy Costs Soar, US Looks to Solar:
Reuters, June 9, 2008
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48689/story.htm
After decades on the fringe, solar power is closing in on America's mainstream as surging fossil fuel prices and mounting concern over climate change spur states, businesses and homeowners into a quickening embrace with alternative energy. Solar's high costs have kept the resource out of reach for many residences and businesses. But not for long, industry analysts and scientists say. The tipping point at which the world's cleanest, most renewable resource is cost-competitive with other sources of energy on electricity grids could happen within two to five years in some US regions and countries if the price of fossil fuels continues to rise at its current pace, they add.
=================================
3.) Duke Energy Launches Solar Power Generation Plan:
SolarBuzz.com, June 9, 2008
http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsNAPR1104.htm
Duke Energy Carolinas is proposing a $100 million plan to install electricity generating solar panels at up to 850 North Carolina sites including homes, schools, stores and factories. Last Friday, the company filed an application with the North Carolina Utilities Commission asking for approval to implement this solar distributed generation program. If the program is approved by regulators, Duke Energy Carolinas would spend two years installing approximately 20 megawatts of distributed solar generation on rooftops of customer businesses and homes or on ground sites within the company's North Carolina service area.
=================================
4.) Brighter Future for Solar Panels - Silicon Shortage Eases; New Factories Could End a Production Logjam But Consumers May Not See Prices Drop Before 2010:
Christian Science Monitor, by Ben Arnoldy, June 5, 2008
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/06/05/brighter-future-for-solar-panels-silicon-shortage-eases
The silicon shortage may be coming to an end thanks to new factories coming online. If true, the price for solar panel modules could start falling by as much as a third by 2010. Global demand for solar panels is growing at about 50 percent per annum but the polysilicon supply for solar will grow by 80 percent for each of the next couple of years. But most panelmakers are locked into long-term contracts with polysilicon suppliers. Most purchases aren’t happening on the spot market, where polysilicon prices have dropped from a high of roughly $475 a kilogram to around $400 today. So analysts expect a lag time before large, established panelmakers can pass along savings.
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5.) Delmarva Power Aims to Meet Delaware’s Clean Energy Goals - Utility Signs a Third Long-Term Agreement for Low Cost Wind Power:
BusinessWire, June 9, 2008
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080609006397&newsLang=en
Delmarva Power and Arlington, Virginia-based energy supplier AES Corporation have signed a long-term contract under which Delmarva Power would purchase up to 70 megawatts of land-based wind power to help meet its renewable energy goals in Delaware. This latest contract, combined with earlier signed contracts with Annapolis, Md.-based Synergics Wind Energy, is part of a larger portfolio of wind energy designed to meet Delaware’s clean energy goals for 20 percent of the utility’s energy supply to come from renewable sources by 2019.
=================================
6.) Wisconsin Power and Light Company To Expand Wind Generation:
RenewableEnergyWorld.com, June 10, 2008
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=52723
Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corporation has filed a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) application with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) for the Bent Tree Wind Farm, a proposed wind farm in Freeborn County, Minnesota. The project has the potential to produce up to 400 megawatts (MW) of energy. WPL's CPCN application seeks PSCW approval to develop approximately 200 MW of wind power on the site beginning in 2009. A decision regarding the development of the wind farm's additional 200 MW has not yet been made.
=================================
7.) Idaho Power Turns to Wind, Geothermal, and Gas to Meet Needs of Customers:
Idaho Statesman, June 8, 2008
http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/0/1/109791110.html
Idaho Power Co. is embarking on an ambitious program to build new transmission lines, natural gas power plants, and wind and geothermal facilities to meet growing demand. The company has aggressively sought contracts with wind power generators and could have 360 megawatts of wind power capacity by 2009. That would be about 12 percent of Idaho Power's power supply, and the company also has plans to add 45.5 megawatts of geothermal power by 2011.
=================================
8.) Clear Skies Solar to Develop $44 Million Solar Farm in Cantil, California
34 Acres of Purchased Land Will House 8MW Solar Photovoltaic Farm:
Centre Daily times, June 10, 2008
http://www.centredaily.com/business/story/645922.html
Clear Skies Solar, Inc., (a leading provider of turnkey solar electricity installations and renewable energy solutions), announced today the purchase of 34 acres of land in Cantil, California -- the future site of a $44 million 8MW solar farm. The 34-acre farm will produce electricity that will be sold under a legal contract known as a Power Purchase Agreement, between Clear Skies Solar and the local utility company. Under this contract, the electricity produced at the farm will be sold for 20 years to the utility company at approximately $0.12 per kWh escalating at approximately 1% per annum.
==================================
9.) San Francisco Board of Supervisors Passes Solar Incentive Plan:
SolarBuzz.com, June 11, 2008
http://www.solarbuzz.com/News/NewsNAGO360.htm
A ten-year solar incentive program passed out of the Board of Supervisors yesterday and now just needs approval of the Mayor to pass in to law. The Solar Energy Incentive Program is expected to be operational in the coming weeks with an initial budget of $3 million which is planned to result in 1.5 MW of solar. The program will is intended to reduce the cost to install solar panels on residential and commercial properties. A one-year pilot program would budget $1.5 million to buildings owned and operated by nonprofit organizations and low-income single and multifamily residential applicants. The program will fund solar incentives ranging from $3,000-$6,000 for residents, up to $10,000 for businesses that install solar and up to $30,000 for non-profit affordable housing.
==================================
10.) Arizona's Largest Biomass Plant Now Providing Electricity to Thousands of Customers:
Associated Press, June 10, 2008
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080610/az_biomass_plant.html?.v=1
Arizona's second and largest biomass plant began providing electricity to 9,000 homes on Tuesday. The 24-megawatt plant about 130 miles northeast of Phoenix in Snowflake is generating electricity with material from forest-thinning efforts in the White Mountains and with unusable, recycled paper fibers from a nearby paper mill.
==================================
11.) North Dakota's Biggest Wind Farm Gets Regulatory Green Light:
Energy Prospects, June 10, 2008
http://www.energyprospects.com/cgi-bin/package_display.pl?packageID=2614
Construction of a 200-MW development with some 133 wind turbines spread over 77 square miles just east of North Dakota's Lake Ashtabula has received regulatory approval. When operational by year-end, it will be the state's largest wind farm. The $350-million project includes $15 million for a 9.5-mile high-voltage transmission line to transmit power to locales east of Lake Ashtabula in Barnes County in the southeastern part of the state. The remaining $335 million will be devoted to building the wind farm.
==================================
12.) Looking to Tap into the Power of Hot Springs:
Colorado Springs Gazettte, by R. Scott Rappold, June 1, 2008
http://www.gazette.com/articles/energy_36914___article.html/geothermal_power.html
For the first time since the energy crisis of the 1970s, geothermal electricity production is getting a serious look in Colorado, and Mt. Princeton Geothermal LLC hopes to build the first plant, near the hot springs. Because of its geology, Colorado has some of the greatest potential in the nation for geothermal energy, and the Mount Princeton project has the support of the Governor's Energy Office. It could generate 10 megawatts or more, enough to power about 5,000 homes.
==================================
13.) New York Power Authority Announces Pivotal Step to Provide Clean Renewable Power For Rebuilt World Trade Center:
New York Power Authority, June 11, 2008
http://www.nypa.gov/press/2008/080611a.htm
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) today announced that it has reached an agreement that will make the redeveloped World Trade Center the site of one of the largest fuel cell installations in the world. The agreement, valued at $10.6 million, was reached with UTC Power of South Windsor, Conn., for equipment purchases to provide heat and power for the new towers. The fuel cells, totaling 4.8 megawatts (mw) of generating capacity, will provide an on-site supplement to the renewable power and other clean energy the rebuilt World Trade Center will receive via power lines from off-site sources. Together with design measures to minimize energy use, the “green” power arrangements will make the Freedom Tower and three other towers that are part of the Trade Center a model for environmentally friendly energy and for energy efficiency.
==================================
14.) Toyota Doubles the Range of its Fuel Cell Vehicle:
EERE Network News, June 11, 2008
http://www.eere.energy.gov/news/enn.cfm#id_11809
Toyota Motor Corporation has developed a new version of its fuel cell hydrogen vehicle (FCHV) that can travel about 515 miles on a single refueling. The extended range of the vehicle makes it much more practical for use in the United States. Even in places like California, which is developing a "Hydrogen Highway" of fueling stations, the refueling opportunities remain few and far between. However, the Toyota FCHV-adv should be able to make it from the company's fuel station in Torrance to its demonstration site in Davis, a distance of about 400 miles.
==================================
15.) Reviving Nuclear Is No Solution for Energy or Climate Crisis, Lovins Says:
Energy Prospects, by Jude Noland, June 10, 2008
http://www.energyprospects.com/cgi-bin/package_display.pl?packageID=2617
New nuclear power will reduce and retard climate solutions because it provides about two to 11 times less solution per dollar [spent] -- tens of times slower than if we spent the same money and time on micropower and efficiency, Amory Lovins told reporters during a June 4 conference call announcing the report's findings. Micropower -- which includes on-site electricity generation, usually through cogeneration and recovery of waste heat, and distributed renewables -- already out-produces nuclear power worldwide and is growing more quickly. RMI's new report, "The Nuclear Illusion" can be found at: http://www.rmi.org/images/PDFs/Energy/E08-01_AmbioNuclIlusion.pdf
=================================
16.) Fact Sheet - Gas Prices and Oil Consumption Would Increase Without Biofuels:
U.S. Department of Energy, June 11, 2008
http://www.energy.gov/news/6335.htm
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that gasoline prices would be between 20 cents to 35 cents per gallon higher without ethanol, a first-generation biofuel. For a typical household, that means saving about $150 to $300 per year. For the U.S. overall, this saves gas expenditures of $28 billion to $49 billion based on annual gasoline consumption of roughly 140 billion gallons. Without biofuels, DOE estimates that the United States would have to use 7.2 billion more gallons of gasoline in 2008 in order to maintain current levels of travel (a 5 percent increase). DOE scientists found that corn ethanol from the U.S. reduced greenhouse gas emission 19 percent compared with gasoline, when the full “life cycle” of the fuel is considered – from growing it to producing the fuel and burning it. DOE scientists estimate that 13 million tons of greenhouse gases were avoided in 2007 due to biofuels production and use.
=================================
17.) PG&E Contracts Solar Thermal-Biomass Hybrid Power:
Reuters, June 12, 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1139875020080612
California utility PG&E Corp said on Wednesday it has contracted with a renewable energy unit of Portuguese conglomerate Martifer for 106.8 megawatts (MW) of solar thermal-biofuel hybrid power. Two projects, which will provide enough power for nearly 75,000 homes in northern and central California, combine solar thermal technology with steam turbines powered by gas produced by local agricultural waste and livestock manure. Martifer's hybrid technology attempts to solve the problem of solar intermediancy by using biomass gas to allow the solar thermal plants to keep running even when the sun is not shining. The projects are expected to begin operations in 2011.
=================================
18.) New Merrill Lynch Report Confirms Overall Benefit of Domestic Ethanol for the Family Budget - Estimated Savings of More than $500 a Year:
Renewable Fuels Association, June 12, 2008
http://renewablefuelsassociation.cmail1.com/e/435217/l/
According to a new analysis by Merrill Lynch Commodity Strategist Francisco Blanch, “retail gasoline prices would be $21/bbl higher, on average, without the incremental biofuel supply.” This translates to a $526 a year savings on gasoline for the average family. Blanch also calculates that U.S. ethanol production has increased corn prices by just 21% since 2004. Because a very small portion of the price of corn is passed through to retail food items, this means ethanol has increased household spending on retail food items by just $15 per year. According to a wide range of experts, skyrocketing oil prices, increased global demand for meat and grains from China and elsewhere, commodity speculators, the declining value of the dollar and droughts and bad weather account for approximately 80 percent of corn costs.
=================================
19.) Hydropower - America's Leading Renewable Energy Resource Has Bright Future:
National Hydropower Association, June 13, 2008
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/story?cid=3340&id=52776
A recent report by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) found 90,000 MW of untapped generation potential from hydropower and new waterpower technologies across the United States. This could produce enough energy to serve the needs of 22 cities the size of Washington, DC. For conventional hydropower, opportunities include capacity gains and efficiency improvements at existing facilities, new small hydropower projects, and new facilities installed on existing non-powered dams. Currently pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are license applications for 430 megawatts of conventional hydropower capacity and 900 megawatts of pumped storage capacity. Another 448 megawatts of conventional hydropower and 2,783 megawatts of pumped storage are before the Commission in the pre-filing stage, before a license application is submitted.
=================================
20.) Toyota Promises Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle by 2010:
Associated Press, by Yuri Kageyama, June 11, 2008
http://www.sunherald.com/307/story/617231.html
Toyota is introducing a plug-in hybrid with next-generation lithium-ion batteries in Japan, the U.S. and Europe by 2010, under a widespread strategy to be green outlined Wednesday. The ecological gas-electric vehicles, which can be recharged from a home electrical outlet, will target leasing customers, Toyota Motor Corp. said. Such plug-in hybrids can run longer as an electric vehicle than regular hybrids, and are cleaner.
================================
21.) Pacific Gas & Electric Investing Billions to Support Plug-In Cars:
Reuters, June 13, 2008
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48774/story.htm
Peter Darbee, the chief executive of California utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co, said on Wednesday that his company is investing billions of dollars in developing the infrastructure necessary to support plug-in hybrid vehicle technology. Darbee stressed the importance of incentive pricing and a "smart electric grid" that would allow and encourage customers to charge their vehicles during off-peak hours, increasing the stability of the system. Vehicle to grid technology, which would allow cars to communicate with the utility in order to pick the most cost-effective time to charge, is still 10 to 20 years away, he said. This technology would also allow the power supply to be reversed, giving a vehicle the capability to provide power to a home.
================================
22.) In Tennessee, New Nuclear Plants Get More Expensive:
Chattanooga Times Free Press, by Dave Flessner, June 11, 2008
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2008/jun/11/new-nuclear-plants-get-more-expensive/
At a cost of more than $6.2 billion when it was completed in 1996, TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is both the newest and most expensive nuclear reactor ever built in the United States. But rising costs for everything from cement to steel are threatening to shatter that cost record for the next generation of nuclear power plants. Despite streamlined licensing requirements and more advanced engineering and design, the latest projected costs for some of the next generation of nuclear reactors are double some initial estimates made five years ago. Other utilities are projecting even higher costs to develop and finance similar reactors. Moody’s Investors Service estimated last year that the cost of a new 1,000-megawatt reactor even smaller than what TVA wants to build at Bellefonte will cost between $5 billion and $6 billion. Florida Power & Light estimates the cost of adding new units at Turkey Point nuclear plant could range from $6.5 billion up to $12 billion per reactor, according to a March filing with Florida regulators.
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY NETWORK
8606 Greenwood Avenue, #2; Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-588-4741
sustainable-energy-network@hotmail.com
Press Review: "An international anti-nuclear march - it gathers people from Australia, America, Japan, Scotland, France, ... - is going through France since 2008, May, 1st. It started in London on April, 26th, the anniversary of Tchernobyl's catastrophe, and it will end in Geneva on July, 18th."
Press Review: "'It's time to look to the French,' New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote in January. 'They've got their heads in the right place, with nuclear power enjoying a 70 percent approval rating.' Similarly, presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain has wondered, 'If France can produce 80 percent of its electricity with nuclear power, why can't we?' Even Southern Republicans are becoming Francophiles, with Georgia State Rep. Amos Amerson, chairman of the Georgia House Science and Technology Committee, asking how the French system might help the United States in its 'efforts to obtain cleaner, cheaper, more stable energy.'"
Please circulate the following sign-on statement to your email lists. To sign on, simply email kevin@beyondnuclear.org your name, title, organization, and full contact information. Individuals are also welcome to sign. Please sign on by noon on Wednesday, June 18th so that we can submit our group comment to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency by the official deadline later that day. Click MORE for text / or on title for additional info
If you'd like to submit additional comments, email them to DGR.Review@ceaa-acee.gc.ca no later than Wednesday, June 18th.
See http://www.acee-ceaa.gc.ca/050/DocHTMLContainer_e.cfm?DocumentID=26204 for additional information.
Thanks!
---Kevin Kamps, Great Lakes United Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force
cell 240-462-3216, kevin@beyondnuclear.org
No Radioactive Waste Dump
in the Heart of the Great Lakes!
The proposal to build a deep underground dump (DUD) for radioactive wastes on the shoreline of the Great Lakes is unacceptable. Water is the most likely dispersal medium for toxic materials in general, and for radioactive wastes in particular.
Nevertheless, that's what is being considered at the Bruce nuclear complex on the Canadian side of Lake Huron. The DUD would be located just over one kilometre (less than one mile) from the Lake, and would house all of the radioactive wastes from 20 commercial nuclear power reactors in Ontario – with the exception of the irradiated nuclear fuel.
It was recently reported that the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) wants to manage the DUD project. But the NWMO deals exclusively with the long-term management of irradiated nuclear fuel, and has nothing whatever to do with other categories of nuclear waste materials. Does the NWMO's involvement mean that the proposed DUD will eventually become a permanent repository for high-level radioactive waste -- making it the "Yucca Mountain" of the Great Lakes region?
The Bruce nuclear complex currently hosts nine reactors (one of them permanently shut down), with proposals for four more. This would make it the largest nuclear power complex in the world. Already there are 500 outdoor silos for the “interim storage” of irradiated nuclear fuel about one kilometre from Lake Huron, and there are plans to build 2,000 more.
Since the DUD is only 50 miles from Michigan across Lake Huron, leakage of radioactivity from the dump could directly affect tens of millions of residents in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, and contaminate the drinking water in Port Huron, Sarnia, Detroit, Windsor, Toledo, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo, Toronto and countless other communities downstream.
Thus, this DUD proposal is not just a Canadian issue, but an international one. In 1986, Canada protested when the U.S. proposed a high-level radioactive waste dump in Vermont because it was too close to the Canadian border; that proposed dump was subsequently cancelled. Now it is time for U.S. residents to speak out. The Canadian DUD proposal sets a dangerous precedent for the establishment of perpetually hazardous facilities on the Great Lakes, and impacts people on both sides of the border.
The successful emplacement of the DUD for so-called “low” and “intermediate” level radioactive wastes from across Ontario – and potentially from the rest of Canada – will create a threat to the Great Lakes watershed for generations to come. It will also increase the likelihood of the Bruce site becoming a permanent disposal dump for high-level radioactive wastes (i.e. irradiated nuclear fuel), which would increase the risks by many orders of magnitude.
Alarming as this proposal is, the process for assessing its environmental impact is also cause for grave concern. In Canada, environmental panels reviewing proposed nuclear facilities have always been independent of the nuclear establishment -- until now. But for the DUD, the Government of Canada intends to place the review panel under the control of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) which is the regulatory authority for licensing nuclear facilities in Canada.
Six months ago, the President of the CNSC was fired by the Canadian federal government for being too strict in her enforcement of reactor safety regulations. The new CNSC President has clear instructions to fast-track all nuclear regulatory approval processes. No environmental assessment panel will be credible if it is dominated by this highly politicized regulatory agency.
Despite the conflict of interest, the CNSC stands ready to chair the environmental assessment panel and to fill two of its three positions. CNSC’s domination of the Full Panel Review is unprecedented, and will undermine the panel's credibility. We urge CNSC’s exclusion from the Panel, so the panel's independence is assured.
We ask that the public comment deadline be extended for six months beyond June 18th. Given the longevity and the unprecedented nature of the hazard that the DUD represents for the entire Great Lakes ecosystem, as well as the minimal outreach to the United States and Native American/First Nations that the Canadian federal government has undertaken, this extension request is reasonable.
Sincerely,
Gordon Edwards (Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, Montreal, Quebec)
and Michael Keegan (Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Great Lakes, Monroe, Michigan)
Co-Chairs
Great Lakes United Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force
Meeting on June 18
NUCLEAR ENERGY: THE TRUE COST
Budgetary, security & environmental implications
THE OPTIONS: ENERGY SUPPLY, EFFICIENCY AND RENEWABLES
Can we afford to say “no” to nuclear energy?
JOBS CREATION: RENEWABLE VS. NUCLEAR
HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT: DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
QUESTIONS/ANSWERS & ACTION STEPS
Presenters:
Deb Katz - CAN Executive Director
Michael J. Daley - Trustee, New England Coalition
Chris Williams - sustainable energy policy activitist
Hattie Nestel, CAN outreach educator
NUCLEAR ENERGY AT WHAT COST?
A PROGRAM YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO MISS!
WEDNESDAY JUNE 18 7:00 PM
Bangs Community Center, Boltwood Walk, Amherst, MA
(behind the Unitarian Meetinghouse, Kellogg and N. Pleasant Sts.)
Info: 413-256-1760
PRESENTED BY THE CITIZEN AWARENESS NETWORK (CAN) and SAGE
SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Western Mass American Friends Service Committee, The Enviro
Show, National Priorities Project, Socialist Party USA, Physicians for Social
Responsibility of the Pioneer Valley, Pioneer Valley War Tax Resisters, Amherst Green
Rainbow, North Quabbin Women in Black, Traprock Peace Center, Co-Op Power
Lactating Mothers Invited to Provide Milk Samples!
Nancy Burton, of Mothball Millstone, is spearheading with others in Fairfield, Westchester and Rockland counties a project to sample mother's milk for possible traces of strontium-90 and other radionuclides which may be linked to Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in Buchanan, New York.
New York State and Indian Point's former owners once had a milk sampling program limited to one farm five miles from Indian Point. That farm shut down in 1991 and the program of sampling milk from farm animals ended.
Entergy, Indian Point's current owner, does sample other items in the environment but as for milk, it has this to say in its Annual Radiological Environmental Monitoring Reports:
"There are no animals producing milk for human consumption within five miles of Indian Point."
Obviously, they are neglecting to consider producers of human milk!
If Entergy were to look beyond the five-mile radius (an arbitrary boundary), it would find many locations where cows, goats and humans produce milk for human consumption.
Goat milk is considered a particularly reliable indicator of strontium-90 presence. Strontium-90 escapes from Indian Point initially as a gas, radioactive krypton, vented to the air. Krypton quickly decays to strontium-90, a particulate, which falls to earth in rainfall and through weather movement. Milk-producing animals breathe the strontium-90 and ingest it in their water and by grazing on grass and browsing on shrubs. People ingest it in just the same way in their drinking water and through the food chain.
Strontium-90 chemically mimics calcium. Mistaking the poison for a nutrient, the body welcomes strontium-90 into the bones and teeth where its energy at a cellular level disrupts nearby cells, triggering bone cancer, interference with the production of red and white blood cells in the bone marrow leading to leukemia and diseases of the immune system. Unborn children and babies are especially vulnerable to its effects because their cells are rapidly dividing.
Near the Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Waterford, Connecticut, where goat milk sampled 5.5 miles from the plant has tested very very high for strontium-90, there is a high incidence of leukemia, early childhood mortality, miscarriage and bone cancer and other cancers among children. Breast cancer rates there are among the highest in the state.
Entergy has the technical means to sample milk for evidence of radionuclides: at its Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant near Brattleboro, Vermont, it samples milk at 4 locations (from .8 miles away to 22 miles away). There is no valid reason why Entergy should not also be sampling milk in the region surrounding Indian Point: 22 million people live within 50 miles of Indian Point. Epidemiological studies are confirming a relation between elevated levels of strontium-90 in baby teeth collected near Indian Point and proximity to the plant, as well as high cancer rates among children close to the plant.
New York State also has the technical means to resume and expand a milk-sampling program: its laboratory in Albany is well equipped to do so.
We are creating the Mother's Milk Project to encourage the State of New York and Entergy to resume milk sampling in the region surrounding Indian Point and to expand it to a 50-mile radius and to expand it to include not just cow’s milk and goat’s milk but also human mother’s milk.
We are launching the campaign - the “Mother’s Milk Project” - for resumption and expansion of milk-sampling at a press conference at a private home in New Canaan, Connecticut (20 or so miles downwind of Indian Point), on Thursday, June 5, at 12 noon. Adorable baby goats and their mother will be present to demonstrate the mechanics of lactation in the animal kingdom.
We especially invite lactating Moms to join us in this campaign, come to the press conference, share their milk for laboratory sampling and bring their babies and friends!
We are anticipating that once we collect samples of mother’s milk, we will split each sample into four parts: one each for New York State, Entergy and our own independent laboratory, retaining one part for safe keeping. All results will be anonymous except as to location of residence (by town and distance from Indian Point). A cup of mother’s milk will suffice, although larger samples are encouraged.
Ultimately, we will plot the results on a map with Indian Point at the center. The results will provide information to develop a data base to inform ourselves and the public on this important topic.
In the coming days, we are planning to establish a website, www.MothersMilkProject.Org. It will describe the project in detail and link to other sites. Photographs of participating mothers - and babies! - are encouraged.
By way of background, Nancy Burton lives in Redding, Connecticut (30 miles downwind of Indian point), with her husband, William H. Honan, a writer and former editor with The New York Times. Their summer cottage in Mystic, Connecticut, is 10 miles downwind of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station.
For 10 years, Nancy has served as director of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, a grass-roots community watchdog organization. Our website is www.MothballMillstone.org. You can visit the site to learn more about Dominion’s reports of elevated levels of strontium-90 in goat milk sampled near Millstone.
Nancy Burton
147 Cross Highway
Redding Ridge CT 06876
Tel. 203-938-3952
What's Green on the Outside and Has a Hummer on the Inside? | Center for Media and Democracy: "Discovery Communications is spending $100 million to re-make its home television network into 'Planet Green,' the first television channel devoted entirely to environmentally-themed programming. Programs will feature 'green' Hollywood stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, rocker Tommy Lee and rapper Ludacris, and"
Fuente: © European Union
http://europa.eu.int
EU: UPDATE 2 ON Krsko. Slovenian authorities inform. Reactor is completely shut down. Leak confined. Situation fully under control
/noticias.info/ For the sake of transparency, the Commission has informed earlier today about the alert message from Slovenia at 17h38 local time about the loss of coolant that has occurred in the primary cooling system of the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant. The Krško Nuclear Power Plant is located in Krško, in South-West Slovenia.
According to the last information received by the Slovenian authorities, the reactor of the Nuclear Power Plant of Krsko has been completely shut down at 19h30. The relatively small leakage remained within the containment building. The Slovenian authorities have confirmed that there has been no discharge to the environment. The situation can be considered fully under control.
The Commission immediately transmitted this information to all Member States.
The European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange (ECURIE) system is the technical implementation of the Council Decision 87/600/Euratom on Community arrangements for the early notification and exchange of information in the event of a radiological or nuclear emergency. This 87/600 Council Decision requires from the ECURIE Member States that they promptly notify the European Commission (EC) and all the Member States potentially affected when they intend to take counter-measures if necessary in order to protect their population against the effects of a radiological or nuclear accident. The EC needs to immediately forward this notification to all Member States. Following this first notification, all Member States are required to inform the Commission at appropriate intervals about the measures they take and the radioactivity levels they have measured. All the 27 EU Member States as well as Switzerland have signed the ECURIE agreement.
There is an agreement with the IAEA to exchange notifications by fax with their early notification system ENATOM.
datos de la noticia
Noticia nº: 361830
Fuente : European Union
Marca Comisión
Ciudad: Bruselas
País: Bélgica
Agencia emisora: (no informado)
Grupo Internacional
Sección Internacional
Subsección Política
Fecha emisión: 04/06/2008
Fecha publicación: 05/06/2008
Tiempo de lectura 1 min
Dear Editors, I wanted to let you know that Chernobyl Children's Project International has started a children's cardiac surgery program in Ukraine. As in Belarus, rates of genetic heart disease have increased dramatically since 1986. We've had a program in Belarus for a number of years, and the program has reduced the waiting list from 7000 to 2400. Here's the story: http://www.chernobyl.typepad.com
All the best, kathy
Kathy Ryan
Chernobyl Children's Project International
Visit: http://WWW.chernobyl.typepad.com
The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Harvey WassermanKing Fossil Fuel has ruled: there will be no Senate debate on global warming this year. And Joe Lieberman's greenwashed campaign gift for John McCain is a no-go.
Bush administration files nuclear dump application - Yahoo! News: "Nevada officials, who have fought the waste dump for years, vowed to launch hundreds of specific challenges to the proposed design of the facility, arguing the Energy Department has not proven it will protect public health, safety and the environment from radiation up to a million years."
Boeing, Dow Chemical fined 926 million over nuclear pollution - Yahoo! News: "he court set the fines in a judgement handed down late Monday after a jury found Dow and Rockwell International Corp, which Boeing bought parts of in 1996, responsible for damages claimed by thousands of property owners near the Rocky Flats (Colorado) Nuclear Weapons Plant in a trial that concluded in February 2006."
2 Leaders Ousted From Air Force in Atomic Errors - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — The Air Force’s senior civilian official and its highest-ranking general were ousted by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Thursday after an inquiry into the mishandling of nuclear weapons and components found systemic problems in the Air Force."
Planet Ark : Italy Greens Say No To Nuclear, Push Renewable Energy: "MILAN - Italy should keep its ban on nuclear power and should boost solar and wind energy instead to resolve its energy supply problems, Italian environmentalists said on Thursday as nuclear revival debate heated up."
Microgeneration could rival nuclear power, report shows | Environment | guardian.co.uk: "Environment
Renewable energy
Microgeneration could rival nuclear power, report shows
John Vidal
guardian.co.uk, Monday June 2 2008 Article history
British buildings equipped with solar, wind and other micro power equipment could generate as much electricity in a year as five nuclear power stations, a government-backed industry report showed today."
Algeria, France to sign nuclear energy pact: minister - Yahoo! News: "ALGIERS (AFP) - Algeria and France are due to sign an unprecedented nuclear energy cooperation pact, Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said Saturday."
100 tons of dreck cleaned out of pipes | lohud.com | The Journal News: "BUCHANAN - Tucked into a recently released report on radioactive contamination at Indian Point is a note from federal regulators about more than 100 tons of debris that power plant workers found built up in the storm-water system since the 1950s."
The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Harvey Wasserman: "US Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman are linking Internet censorship with atomic power in a way that should terrify us all.
McCain is the real power behind Lieberman-Warner global warming bill on which the Senate could vote as early as Tuesday, June 3. As a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, McCain is pushing hard for massive subsidies to build new atomic reactors. Despite his 'free market' ideology, this bill may hand a half-trillion taxpayer dollars to an industry that cannot get private backing for a failed, terror-target technology."
Pushback Against The Big Boys Who Put People's Health, Safety and Lives Behind Profits: The Fight Against Indian Point
Dear Friends,
I recently received an e-mail from an IPSEC member who is feeling a bit dispirited about the fact Indian Point is still up and spewing its radioactive effluents. I frequently have the same sentiment. I’m guessing some of you do as well.
I guess what happens to me is that Entergy or the NRC then dependably does something so unconscionable that my sense of outrage takes over. I’d like to say I’m powered by pure love for humanity and the beautiful planet Earth – but the truth is it’s outrage.
After 9/11, when it was revealed the plane that struck the first Tower whipped right by Indian Point, I started to do a little research on nuclear plant security. I became so astonished and horrified about what I found, that I couldn’t stop researching. But I also didn’t do anything proactively for months. I basically sat at my computer at my law office muttering to myself: “They’ve got to do something. How can they not be doing something?”
One day, the more important question occurred to me: Who is “they”? Suddenly, I realized, I am they. I am an American citizen who has a certain level of education and a certain set of skills and I absolutely must actively bring those to bear against this genuine threat to my community.
And you all have been doing the same, despite the frustration. In a way, we are all just individuals with our own little hammers banging against a very big wall. The wall may stand. It may also crack and crumble. No one will know which stroke of the hammer is the breaking point stroke until it is made.
This year will be a critical one in the fight against the relicensing of Indian Point. We have made enormous progress since the coalition formed in the wake of 9/11. This is the only nuclear plant in the country where a state (New York) has formally joined the effort to oppose relicensing. Notably the Attorney General of Connecticut also filed an intervenor petition. And we have an ally in the Congressional delegation of the Lower Hudson Valley. So we have some pretty strong hammers now striking at the wall.
The most important point is that public officials in our democracy have always followed the lead of citizens. We must keep up the pressure. How? Write letters to the editor of your local paper and the New York Times. Write letters to public officials. Call in to radio stations. Go to meetings of local environmental and public health groups. Go to meetings of your local Republican, Democratic, Green, Right to Life, whatever, party chapter and raise the issue. Join your fellow IPSEC members at regional NRC Meetings. Send whatever money you can to the organizational members of IPSEC who are fighting the legal battle. Talk to your friends and neighbors. IPSEC will regularly send out Action Alerts this year. Do whatever you can.
Let’s all raise hell this year.
Michel
Michel Lee, Esq.
Steering Committee
Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition
Chairman
Council on Intelligent Energy
& Conservation Policy
(914) 420-5624
ciecplee@verizon.net
Police: Indian Point contractor found carrying a gun | lohud.com | The Journal News: "BUCHANAN - A contractor at Indian Point was arrested this morning after guards discovered a 45-caliber semi-automatic handgun in a bag he was carrying through a security checkpoint at the nuclear plant.
According to information obtained by The Journal News/LoHud.com, Buren Palmer, 39, of Greensburg, Pa., was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon by a state police trooper assigned to the nuclear plant."
Top Stories
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Destroying Safety Review Documents
Background: The Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has discovered that the NRC safety review staff routinely destroys supporting documents after conducting safety reviews as part of the license renewal application process. The report comes after the NRC safety review staff was also caught by OIG last September plagiarizing industry safety reports included in license renewal applications and passing them off as their own so-called independent analysis. In both cases, the OIG concluded it was difficult to verify the accuracy and integrity of the NRC "independent" safety reports.
Our View: These revelations support, if not confirm, our suspicions that the NRC chooses to extend the licenses of aging reactors using nothing more than a large rubber stamp. The NRC destroyed the paper trail that would show how the agency decided that an aging reactor was safe enough to re-license for another 20 years. The public therefore has no way of knowing whether the agency actually conducted an independent safety analysis or whether it simply took the self-interested nuclear industry’s word that the reactors are safe. Finally, this practice of plagiarism and destruction of safety analyses is very likely illegal. There are agency directives that mandate retention of federal records.
What You Can Do: Check the NRC website to see if your local nuclear reactor is currently re-licensed or in the process. You can inform your community and call into question the legitimacy of reactor re-licensing process by writing letters to the editor. Contact your Congressional representatives asking that NRC destruction of federal records relating to public health and safety be made part of upcoming Congressional Hearings before the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
Help Stop the Single Biggest Nuclear Industry Money Grab in U.S. History
Background: Debate on the Senate floor on the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill (S. 2191, the "America's Climate Security Act of 2007") should begin June 2nd. The word "nuclear" is nowhere in the bill, but last year's version of the bill that passed the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee contained over $500 billion in thinly veiled nuclear power subsidies. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute recently estimated the nuclear power industry's taxpayer subsidies over the past 50 years at more than half a trillion dollars. Therefore, the Lieberman-Warner bill would double the amount of taxpayer subsidies that the nuclear power industry has received in its entire history. Although EPW Chairwoman, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), blocked additional pro-nuclear amendments in Committee last fall, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and pro-nuclear Republican senators, including presidential hopeful John McCain (R-AZ), will likely attempt to insert pro-nuclear amendments into the current bill.
Our View: Handing over hundreds – or even just tens – of billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies to the already heavily subsidized nuclear power industry would amount to giving it the keys to the U.S. Treasury. Having failed to solve its waste, safety, security and proliferation problems for 50 years, it’s time for nuclear power to exit the stage. It is neither self-sufficient financially, nor useful in addressing climate change since reactors are too expensive and take too long to build. Subsidies are badly needed instead for real climate change solutions including energy efficiency and renewable sources of electricity like wind and solar power.
What You Can Do: Call your two U.S. Senators today via the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121. Urge them to block any climate change bill or amendments that would provide subsidies to the nuclear power industry. Request meetings with your two Senators (or their staff) while they are back home for the Memorial Day recess next week. And organize media activities. These could include a media event demonstrating community opposition to nuclear power subsidies, and submitting letters to the editor or opinion-editorials to your local newspapers.
Of Note
The French Nuclear Medusa: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will investigate an apparent violation of its transportation regulations after the French nuclear company, AREVA shipped used equipment to the Watts Bar nuclear plant in Tennessee that measured higher than permissible levels of radioactivity. According to an NRC press release, its inspector determined that AREVA's procedures for decontaminating and packaging the equipment were not adequate to ensure external radiation would not exceed regulatory requirements. This comes on the heels of a similar shipping violation through Virginia in February when AREVA again transported equipment almost 400 miles that measured beyond regulatory limits for radiation.
(The French Nuclear Medusa, or La Meduse Française Nucléaire, will be an occasional feature of the Beyond Nuclear Bulletin (BNB) revealing the latest tentacled maneuverings by the French nuclear complex to gain a global stranglehold on nuclear energy. “Meduse” is French for jellyfish.)
Beyond Nuclear and the New Nuclear Winter: The Cold War is over but could a nuclear winter still happen? And what if a nuclear war occurred not between the U.S. and Russia but between India and Pakistan? Could a limited exchange cause a nuclear winter? The answer to the first question is still “yes.” And the answer to the last is “not quite.” However, the consequence of an India-Pakistan exchange could still be mass starvation and the collapse of global agriculture, similar to the effects of a nuclear winter. These are the conclusions of new research developed by a team of renowned scientists, some of whom worked with Carl Sagan on the original nuclear winter findings.
What You Can Do: You can bring these scientists to your community. Please contact Beyond Nuclear for details. In an exciting, multi-media presentation, the nuclear winter scientists and Beyond Nuclear first explain the problems that could lead to a near or actual nuclear winter, then offer solutions to avoid this unthinkable tragedy. Contact Beyond Nuclear today to bring the Nuclear Winter Tour to your community. Write: info@beyondnuclear.org or call: 301.270.2209 and ask for development director, Linda Gunter. Let’s work to prevent this tragedy while we can.
Hypoallergenic Aquaball Laundry Kit - www.guardianecostore.co.uk: "f you're looking for a more environmentally-considered washing solution, then let us introduce you to the Aquaball. Simple to use, effective and economical, Aquaball is an eco laundry ball"
Turkey's Nuclear Power Plans Draw Outrage | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 23.05.2008: "Plans to build several new nuclear power plants have come up against hefty protest in Turkey, which is still suffering the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown. Turkey's nuclear authority has lost its credibility."
Man found with explosives at Swedish nuclear plant - Yahoo! News: "STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Police said on Wednesday they were interrogating a man who had entered a nuclear plant on Sweden's southeast coast carrying highly explosive material."
France's Areva announces $2.7 billion deal with US Energy Department for nuclear fuel plant - International Herald Tribune: "PARIS: France's Areva announced Friday that a subsidiary has finalized a US$2.7 billion (€1.72 billion) deal with the U.S. Energy Department to build and operate a plant in South Carolina turning weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear power�plants."
Face It. Nukes Are the Most Climate-Friendly Industrial-Scale Form of Energy
WIRED Magazine : ......Look at the environmental protection agency's CO2-per-kilowatt-hour map of the US and two bright patches of low-carbon happiness jump out. One is the hydro-powered Pacific Northwest. The other is Vermont, where a 30-year-old nuclear reactor, Vermont Yankee, keeps the Ben & Jerry's cold...
China testing nuclear plants for quake damage: Report-China-World-The Times of India: "The French experts of the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) said several nuclear installations not used for electricity generation were located in the south-western province at the epicentre of the quake."
Spread of Nuclear Capability Is Feared - washingtonpost.comNuclear Energy Could Spark Arms Race: A front page investigative story in the Washington Post this week sounded the warning that is central to the Beyond Nuclear message: the spread of nuclear energy around the world could spark a new nuclear arms race. The article, written by Joby Warrick, made a number of key points, including that “nuclear power can give a country the technological expertise and infrastructure that could become the foundation for a clandestine weapons program.”
Our View: Missing from this otherwise excellent and timely piece was the fact that global nuclear promotion is not only the purview of nuclear corporations but also – and inappropriately – the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This came most chillingly to light when former NRC Commissioner, Jeffrey Merrifield, told an industry and regulatory conference last year that the agency needed to take a more proactive role in “international partnerships” for the development of nuclear power and “an increased role in promoting strengthened nuclear regulators worldwide,” including to the military junta of Burma.
What You Can Do: Help Beyond Nuclear continue to expose the flagrant industry bias of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Burma needs aid not atoms. Insist that your Congressional representatives hold the NRC accountable – as is their mandate – for its consistent rubber-stamping of nuclear industry initiatives that increase proliferation dangers worldwide.
When Recycling Isn't: Lessons from a Nuclear Industry Conference | Center for Media and Democracy: "I learned many things at the Nuclear Energy Institute's (NEI's) annual meeting, but perhaps none more surprising than this: When nuclear power executives discuss the state of their industry, they highlight many of the same issues as their environmentalist opponents.
Of course, the emphasis and even the language are different. But presenters at the 'Nuclear Energy Assembly,' held in Chicago from May 5 to 7, discussed financing for new nuclear plants, nuclear waste storage and nuclear weapons proliferation concerns."
Joseph Egan, Lawyer Who Fought Nuclear Waste Site, Is Dead at 53 - New York Times: "Mr. Egan, in an obituary he wrote weeks ago that was posted on his law firm’s Web site after his death, said that he had arranged for his ashes to be spread at Yucca Mountain, in Southern Nevada, with the words “radwaste buried here only over my dead body.”"
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Re-energising the nuclear industry: "The 'RadBall' is one innovation to improve nuclear plants' operations"
All 3 U.S. presidential candidates back nuclear power - International Herald Tribune
John McCain embraces it. Barack Obama wants to address its flaws. Hillary Clinton is cautious but not opposed.
Local News | Areva plans to build $2 billion uranium plant in Idaho
| Seattle Times Newspaper: "French-owned energy services company Areva NC Inc. will build a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant near the eastern Idaho city of Idaho Falls, after winning tax concessions from the state Legislature."
New Wave of Nuclear Plants Faces High Costs - WSJ.comNuclear power is regaining favor as an alternative to other sources of power generation, such as coal-fired plants, which have fallen out of favor because they are major polluters. But the high cost could lead to sharply higher electricity bills for consumers and inevitably reignite debate about the nuclear industry's suitability to meet growing energy needs.
Forget Nuclear: "Nuclear power, we’re told, is a vibrant industry that’s dramatically reviving because it’s proven, necessary, competitive, reliable, safe, secure, widely used, increasingly popular, and carbon-free—a perfect replacement for carbon-spewing coal power. New nuclear plants thus sound vital for climate protection, energy security, and powering a growing economy."
Radioactive sand coming to Idaho from Kuwait | News Updates | Idaho Statesman: "American Ecology Corp. is shipping about 6,700 tons of sand containing traces of depleted uranium and lead to a hazardous waste disposal site 70 miles southeast of Boise. The sand arrived by ship at Longview, Wash., this week and company officials say loads are scheduled to begin arriving in Idaho by rail in two weeks."
To the Village Square...we must carry the facts of atomic energy, from there must come America's voice.
Albert Einstein. June1946
An exhibit of photographs documenting the birth and growth of the movement that stopped for thirty one years the development of nuclear power in the US.
A look at the people who against all odd made a difference.
15 . 22 X 29 Black & White archival pigment prints.
May 16th - June 1 2008-
OVER THE RAINBOW GALLERY@ THE INSTITUTE FOR LIVING ETHICS - Corner of Boadway & Hudson, NYACK NY 10968.
Delevingne - Biography, simplified. May 2008
Lionel Delevingne of Piermont, NY is a photojournalist and native of France who has traveled and photographed throughout the world. His documentation of the Clamshell Alliance, the anti - nuclear group and the environmental movement at large, has been widely praised and published in many publications including: The New York Times, Le Figaro Magazine, Newsweek, Washington Post Magazine, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, In These Times.... The recipient of numerous grants, Delevingne has had numerous solo exhibits throughout Europe and the United States.. His work can be found in the collections of many museums and private collections. Delevingne is the founder of Delevingne & Associates a consulting firm dedicated to Education . His clients include Andover, Collegiate, Steiner and Harvard . He recently founded “ To the Village Square “, a multi media project created to help revive the struggle against the nuclear power industry.
May 30 -- June 1, 2008
Columbia, South Carolina
This is the "call" we posted a few weeks ago: We as a community say "stop making more" radioactive waste since we understand that the failure to find a real solution to this problem is the failure of the technologies that produce it; We as a community demand responsible management of radioactive waste; We stand firm against false "solutions;" We reject the idea that this waste should be exported -- to Indigenous Lands -- or anywhere else; We call for better security and improved management and containment where ever the waste is now; We focus on the hazards of transporting radioactive waste and materials -- particularly in the case of irresponsible, false "solutions..." it is time for us to come together -- to find and re-affirm that "We" -- in the sense of The People, in the sense of impacted communities -- and essentially as activists.
Now we have more information:
Dr. Frank von Hippel will speak on Friday May 30 on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and reprocessing with a panel including Steve Frischman, Kevin Kamps and Diane D'Arrigo
Dr. Arjun Makhijani will speak on Sunday June 1 on his Carbon Free and Nuclear Free: a Roadmap for US Energy Policy
Saturday we will share our stories and have 8 -- 10 options for information workshops -- as well as time to think together about nuclear waste in the context of the industry's effort to "come back" in both the commercial and military sectors.
For event schedule, costs (as low as $15 if you stay off-site OR total of $110 with 2 nights and 5 meals) and registration page (note: registration is required). Please visit: http://www.nirs.org/nwsummit/summit.htm for more information or https://secure.campagne-online.com/registrant/donate.aspx?EventID=4211&LangPref=en-CA if you already know you want to register.
This event was born in a moment at a 'break-out' session of a conference on Precautionary Action in Greensboro, NC in November 2007 -- and is being carried forward by a planning group* including participation from:
Bobbie Paul -- Atlanta WAND
David Kraft -- Nuclear Energy Information Service
Debbie Grinnell -- C-10
Diane D'Arrigo -- Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Glenn Carroll -- Nuclear Watch South
Janet Marsh -- Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
Judy Treichel -- Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force
Kevin Kamps -- Beyond Nuclear
Leslie Minerd
Liz Veazy -- Southern Energy Network
Mary Olson -- NIRS Southeast
Rochelle Becker -- Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility
Sara Barczak -- Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Sara Tansey -- South Carolina Alliance for Sustainable Campuses and Communities
Susan Corbett -- Sierra Club, South Carolina Chapter
Tom Clements -- Friends of the Earth
*this list now also includes cosponsoring organizations -- and I am sure more will be added -- please be in touch if your group wants to cosponsor!
Note: due to industry attempts to participate in recent events intended for activists, there will be a pre-registration process. This event is open to all who are working positively for the end of the production of more radioactive waste (stop making it)!
Mary Olson
Southeast Regional Coordinator
NIRS Southeast Office
PO Box 7586 Asheville, NC 28802
828-675-1792 nirs@main.nc.us
http://www.nirs.org/southeast
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)
6930 Carroll Ave, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-NIRS fax 301-270-4291 nirsnet@nirs.org http://www.nirs.org
NIRS affiliated with World Information Service on Energy (WISE) in 2000 -- the NIRS / WISE Network serves grassroots activists on 5 continents
This is NIRS’ 30th anniversary year: Help kick off our next 30 years, and our work to build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future, with your most generous contribution possible. Please make your tax-deductible donation here.
And if you haven’t done so yet, don’t forget to sign the statement on nuclear power and climate at www.nirs.org (but please don’t sign more than once!). If you’ve already signed, ask your friends and colleagues to sign!
What Nuclear Renaissance?: "In an effort to jump-start a 'nuclear renaissance,' the Bush Administration has pushed one package of subsidies after another. For the past two years a program of federal loan guarantees has sat waiting for utilities to build nukes. Last year's appropriations bill set the total amount on offer at $18.5 billion. And now the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill is gaining momentum and will likely accrue amendments that will offer yet more money."
British planners feared tea shortage after nuclear attack - Yahoo! News: "Never mind the radiation: British contingency planners worried there would be a dramatic shortage of tea in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, recently declassified documents showed Monday."
News from Beyond Nuclear
May 6, 2008
Sky-Rocketing Reactor Costs Hit Europe: Several weeks ago we revealed that cost estimates for new U.S. reactors were soaring to more than $12 billion, well above the commonly touted $3-4 billion per unit. This week, Wulf Bernotat, the head of the world’s largest power company, Germany’s E.ON, predicted that new reactors proposed for Great Britain could cost at least $9 billion apiece, double their original estimates. The prices do not of course include the potentially massive costs of decommissioning reactors, once closed, nor dealing with the nuclear waste they produce.
Our View: Dr. Bernotat’s projections are to be taken seriously as his company is already enduring the bitter experience of a partnership in the new French reactor under construction in Finland. That reactor – also slated for the U.S. – is reportedly already more than $2.5 billion over budget but Dr. Bernotat predicts a final price tag of almost $7 billion.
What You Can Do: Join with us as we work to prevent obscene giveaways that would Bandaid over the nuclear industry’s financial woes using as much as $500 billion of taxpayer money. That’s the amount potentially hidden in the Lieberman-Warner so-called climate change bill about to come to the floor of the Senate. Call your senators and urge them to oppose and eliminate all nuclear subsidies – whether in the bill or offered as amendments.
Nuclear Renaissance A Sham: Beyond Nuclear is in Chicago this week with our colleagues from Nuclear Energy Information Service to continue to expose the nuclear industry’s preposterous claim that it is enjoying some kind of “renaissance.” As we are sure you have noticed, the nuclear industry is now on a permanent road trip using highly-paid shills to advance its fraudulent claims of regeneration. Beyond Nuclear and NEIS conducted press outreach to coincide with this week’s annual conference of the industry’s trade group – the Nuclear Energy Institute. Coverage includes the Chicago Tribune and National Public Radio.
Our View: The nuclear industry cannot be allowed to get away with its spurious claims unchallenged. As our first story illustrates, the only way the nuclear industry can survive its enormous costs is to once again milk the public purse. Its renaissance is in reality a relapse, a costly habit enabled entirely by federal funding. Without it, the nuclear industry would find itself in the throes of sudden death, a far cry from a “renaissance”.
Of Note
Hot Legacy: In a central chapter of his intriguing book, The World Without Us, Alan Weisman examines abandoned nuclear sites that have become apparent “havens” for wildlife. But as Weisman points out, the abundance of species in the Chernobyl zone and at the former Colorado nuclear weapons complex at Rocky Flats, may paint a misleading picture. In his chapter, Hot Legacy, he writes of Rocky Flats:
Regardless of the grim business that went on here, these animals seem to be doing fine. However, while there are plans to monitor the human wildlife managers for radiation intake, a refuge official admits doing no genetic tests on the wildlife itself.
“We’re looking at human hazards, not damage to species. Acceptable dose levels are based on 30-year career exposures. Most animals don’t live that long.”
Maybe not. But their genes do.
Great Lakes United: Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear serves on the Nuclear-Free/Green Energy Task Force of Great Lakes United (GLU), a coalition of 170 U.S., Canadian, and First Nations organizations. On May 2nd, GLU passed three anti-nuclear resolutions at its annual general meeting: to end subsidies to nuclear power and fossil fuels, instead investing those taxpayer funds in real answers to the climate crisis such as energy efficiency and renewables; to prohibit uranium mining in the Great Lakes Basin; and to block turning radioactively contaminated former nuclear reactor sites, such as Big Rock Point in Michigan, into state parks as a clear attempt to transfer liability and risks from the polluters onto the public. Beyond Nuclear joined GLU as an organizational member, and looks forward to its continued collaboration with the largest environmental coalition in the Great Lakes Basin.
Will You Paws for Peace? Beyond Nuclear will be putting together a 2009 calendar that will also serve as our first Annual Report. The calendar is called Paws for Peace and a Nuclear-Free World. It will be available in the fall. It features quality black and white photos of the animals that belong to our friends, family and colleagues. Your favorite animal could be one of them! Simply submit a high-quality black and white photo (or a good quality color photo we can convert) as a JPG file to: info@beyondnuclear.org with a short description about your animal, yourself and your efforts to achieve a world beyond nuclear. We will select from the best of the bunch. No snail mail submissions please. (Friendly tip: the higher quality photos will be given preference.) The deadline is June 30, 2008.
Please donate to Beyond Nuclear. Won’t you please consider becoming a monthly recurring donor? You can set up your profile and monthly giving here. All gifts are tax-deductible. Or you can mail a check to: Beyond Nuclear at NPRI, 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400, Takoma Park, MD 20912.
-end-
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. Beyond Nuclear staff can be reached at: 301.270.2209. Or view our Web site at: www.beyondnuclear.org
Beyond Nuclear at NPRI
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400
Takoma Park, MD 20912
Tel: 301.270.2209 Fax: 301.270.4000
Email: info@beyondnuclear.org
Web: www.beyondnuclear.org
YouTube - Chernobyl: CCPI Projects Bring Hope for FutureNow you can learn about the Chernobyl disaster through video -- including videos showing Chernobyl Children's Project International at work -- on our new CCPI Channel on YouTube. Go there by clicking on the title above
Ministerial nuclear council: "France is to create a top-level council on nuclear energy. Consisting of ministers and chaired by the President, it will decide France's nuclear policy.
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Nuclear Spin - Nuclear Spin: "NuclearSpin was originally launched in response to the British Government’s 12-week consultation on energy in 2006. In 2007, the High Court ruled that the Government’s plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations were “unlawful” and the way it consulted with the public over the decision was “misleading, seriously flawed, manifestly inadequate and procedurally unfair”. [1] [2]"
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Nuclear's CO2 cost 'will climb': "The case for nuclear power as a low carbon energy source to replace fossil fuels has been challenged in a new report by Australian academics."
Possible groundbreaking by year's end for Md. reactor: "'I certainly would like to see more nuclear plants built in our country, and I would support more generation capacity and more nuclear capacity here in the state of Maryland,' O'Malley said. 'I think that would be a good thing not only for the environment, but also for consumers as well.'"
Entergy names spin-off firms: "In order to spin-off its non-utility nuclear business, Entergy has created and named two new firms. Enexus is to be a standalone owner of six of Entergy's current 11-reactor fleet. Equagen is to take operating responsibility for the Enexus' and Entergy's reactors."
Dumb as We Wanna Be - New York Timest is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away.
To everyone concerned about Indian Point:
Entergy, the multi billion dollar corporation which owns Indian Point has convened a panel to assess the conditions at Indian Point. It is important to understand that this is NOT the Independent Safety Analysis we have been calling for, nor does it have anything to do with re-licensing. However, this panel might be able to suggest improvements in day-to-day operations. The panel is designed to look at current operating conditions at both plants. They have asked that members of the public send their questions and concerns to safety@nyindianpoint.org.
Members of the IPSEC core group attended the meeting on the 28th to observe the proceeding and get a clearer picture of what might be possible and how honest it might be. Individual panel members have assured us that they take their job seriously and will report any safety issues they find. While this may or may not be true, it now seems strategic to give them as much grassroots input as possible. It can be done quickly and easily by email. It is necessary to do this NOW because their evaluations will begin on Monday, May 5th. Anything you can think of that may be a compromise of standards or an environmental threat should be submitted. In theory, the more they see, the more they will dig, and potentially correct.
Your response to this request is important and appreciated in the struggle to close Indian Point. Here is what you need to do NOW:
Write to safety@nyindianpoint.org, and let the panel know about your concerns in regard to the reactors at Indian Point.
If you need some ideas, take a look at the list below, decide what is most important to you and focus on that.
Thank you so much for your help.
In Solidarity,
The IPSEC Steering Committee
PS - Please pass this note on to your friends and neighbors and encourage them to write to safety@nyindianpoint.org. Thanks again!
* the flawed evacuation plan that James Lee Witt told Entergy in 2003 could not work. There appears to be a new plan developed by the four counties' Bureaus of Emergency Services (Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange) that calls for a 2-mile radius evacuation plan and 5 miles downwind. The rest of the people in the 10-mile radius would be placed on alert and "sheltered in place" until such time that evacuation might be required. Is this your idea of a good plan? Please tell the panel.
* the radioactive water leaks into the Hudson River are still going on. Entergy made its final report to the NRC in February, about where the leaks come from - but they didn't stop them.
* the detrimental effects of aging resulting from metal fatigue, erosion, corrosion and shrinkage. Such age-related degradation can affect a number of systems. The effects of aging can overstress equipment, unacceptably reduce safety margins, and lead to the loss of required plant functions, including the capability to otherwise prevent or mitigate the consequences of accidents with a potential for offsite exposures.
* Environmental justice issues such as fishermen bringing home and eating fish they catch in the Hudson River because they can't afford not to. Minorities imprisoned in Sing Sing prison in Ossining - what is the plan for them in the event of an evacuation?
* Airborne and water-borne radioactive emissions from the plant, both planned and unplanned, which release radioactivity into the environment. The National Academy of Science has now found that there is no safe level of radiation exposure, and all radiation exposure is cumulative. And it causes cancer. If you live within the 10-mile radius of Indian Point and someone in your family has been diagnosed with cancer, please include that information.
* Indian Point's vulnerability to a terrorist attack.
* Indian Point's vulnerability to an earthquake, as the plant is sited on two earthquake faults.
* The production and storage of high level radioactive waste. There is no place to safely store it and we need to stop producing it.
Harvey Wasserman
Making YOU pay for the next Chernobyls ... in advance!!
April 26, 2008
Are you ready to pay for the next Chernobyls---in advance? Are you willing to have nuclear power PREVENT a solution to the climate crisis?
Twenty-two years ago today, an apocalyptic cloud rose up from Unit Four, in the heart of the Ukraine. For the next few hundred generations, you and your progeny will breathe its radioactive fallout, which was thousands of times worse than that released at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Conservative estimates of Chernobyl's financial costs are in the $500 billion range. In downwind regions festering with cancer and birth-defected children, the ultimate death toll is impossible to estimate.
Another Chernobyl could be happening as you read this. And you are already on line to pay for it.
The so-called "reactor renaissance" is built on high-priced lies and public liability.
Not one of the 104 US reactors now licensed to operate, and not one of the new ones being hyped, can get insurance from private sources against another Chernobyl.
For a half-century---since passage of the 1957 Price-Anderson Act---your tax dollars have protected the reactor owners. Now they want you on the hook for another century or so.
Check out your homeowners' insurance policy for its specific exclusions against liability for reactor-related radiation.
With an old reactor or new, a Chernobyl here will bankrupt the government…and YOU.
The first 9/11/2001 jet that flew into the World Trade Center passed, a minute prior, directly over the Indian Point nuke site. Had the terrorists targeted those one dormant and two active reactors, plus the three pools full of spent high-level fuel rods, the loss of life and property would have been beyond comprehension.
Billions of dollars in private money now pour into renewable technologies like wind and solar, which are the real solution to the climate crisis. Every dollar invested in increased efficiency saves seven times the energy a dollar invested in nukes can produce.
Last fall a grassroots movement stopped an attempt to grab $50 billion in federal loan guarantees (see nukefree.org).
Now nuke pushers want to load the Lieberman-Warner "Global Warming" Bill with still more taxpayer subsidies.
But from the start of the fuel cycle to plant decommissioning and waste management, reactor technology is a serious greenhouse gas emitter. The final "bootprint" is unclear because there's no actual solution to the waste problem, and no firm price for final reactor decommissioning.
A French "new generation" project in Finland is already two years and $2 billion over budget. French nukes are gargantuan tax pits, Europe's most notorious radioactive polluter, and an ecological and public health nightmare.
In Florida, ratepayers may be gouged for up to $24 billion for two new reactors that would destroy the Everglades, and still more billions for two more north of Tampa. The utilities involved don't know what kind of reactors they want to build, can't guarantee when they would come on line, or what they'll ultimately cost.
All that money should be going to renewables, which can solve global warming NOW, rather than at some alleged, inscrutable, incalculable distance in the future. Wind, solar, tidal, wave, geothermal and a host of green "Solartopian" technologies are attracting huge quantities of private capital. Based on the natural bounty of our Mother Earth, they promise tangible, immediate economic and employment opportunity, not radioactive catastrophe.
Chernobyl proved that atomic energy's most significant ability---by terror or error---is to spread radiation over large chunks of the Earth. While blocking the real solutions to climate chaos, nukes can bankrupt entire nations in a single moment. They can inflict birth defects and cancer on millions of humans with a single cloud.
Twenty-two years after, it's time to ask the ultimate question about the last reactor catastrophe: In money, body and soul, do you really want to pay for the next ones?
--
Harvey Wasserman's SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, is available at www.solartopia.org. He is Senior Editor of www.freepress.org, edits the Nukefree.org web site, and is part of a dialog on nuke power at www.motherjones.com/blue_marble_blog/
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National Grassroots Conference Call on Lieberman/Warner
Climate Bill and Pro-Nuclear Amendments
Wednesday, April 30, 2008—2 pm
Dear Friend,
You are invited to a national grassroots conference call to discuss the Lieberman/Warner cap and trade climate change bill--and likely pro-nuclear amendments—on Wednesday, April 30 at 2 pm Eastern time. Call-in number is 218-936-1200; code is 91252#.
The bill is set to come to the Senate floor on June 2, for what will likely be about a week of debate.
We expect that several amendments to further support and subsidize the nuclear power industry will be offered. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), for example, has said the price of his support for the bill will be massive new federal subsidies for new nuclear reactor construction.
NIRS is setting up this conference call because we believe these will be the most significant Congressional votes of this session, and the outcome will set the marker for climate change legislation next session. We can beat back this pro-nuclear tide—but only if we have substantial help and participation from the grassroots.
Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and NIRS are on record opposing the Lieberman/Warner bill in its current form; most other national environmental groups are supporting it with greater or lesser degrees of enthusiasm. Regardless of anyone’s position on the bill itself, however, it is essential to defeat these expected pro-nuclear amendments and support amendments that improve the bill by promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Erich Pica and Kate McMahon of FoE will provide a briefing on the bill and on the expected nuclear amendments. We hope you’ll join us and take this opportunity to learn more about the issue and how we can all work together to send a powerful no-nuclear message to the Senate.
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-NIRS (301-270-6477); Fax: 301-270-4291
nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org
Gov. vows to halt EnergySolutions' importation of Italian nuke waste - Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 04/24/2008 06:27:11 AM MDT
Click photo to enlarge
Jon Huntsman Jr.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. on Wednesday vaulted to the front lines of a national fight against foreign nuclear waste.
Utah has been the main battleground since Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions applied for a license last fall to dispose of the radioactive discards from Italy's dismantled reactors. The Republican governor has said for months that a waste-limiting agreement he signed with the company last year blocked him from interfering with its plan to bury the Italian waste at its Tooele County disposal site.
An Earth Day look at nuclear energy - Newburyport, MA - The Swampscott Reporter
NEWBURYPORT - Learning about global warming, energy costs and geo-political instability from the perspective of Chris Nord, vice president of the Citizens Awareness Network and board member of Newburyport’s C-10 Research and Education Foundation, might be considered a chilling experience.
Nord, a nuclear power industry watchdog and longtime Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant opponent, says many residents within the 10-mile radius of the Seabrook plant are not aware that they live within the “sacrifice zone,” an official term given the area by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Additionally, he says, they may not be aware that the 2006 Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR) study conducted by the National Academy of Science determined there are no safe levels of radiation exposure, and that women and children are more vulnerable than men to health problems associated with exposure.
Nord will discuss these issues and more at a free talk entitled “Nuclear Energy: Sustainable and Secure?” Thursday, April 17 at 7 p.m. at the Mass Audubon Center at Joppa Flats, 1 Plum Island Turnpike, Newbury. His talk, hosted by the C-10 Foundation, is presented in conjunction with the local month-long celebration of Earth Day.
Nord, a 30-year resident of the region, will discuss the nuclear power industry within the timely context of climate change. He perceives the need to find “truly sustainable energy solutions to the growing ecological crisis of climate change.”
“We are living through one of the most extraordinary ecological transitions of all time. We have outstripped our environmental underpinnings and with our present global economy we need to face the possibility of environmental collapse,” Nord says.
Nord says we have only 10 years to rectify the consequences of human altered global climate change. He is concerned that other cultures such as the Inuit and the Maldivians may be the first human cultures threatened with extinction due to the increases of world temperatures. The Maldives is an archipelago stringing throughout the South Pacific with land only 4 feet above rising sea levels. The Inuit are vulnerable because of well-documented threats to sea ice, walrus and polar bears, all necessary to their survival above the Arctic Circle.
Nord has been an outspoken critic of nuclear power due to the unresolved long-term health dangers and homeland security issues associated with the industry. He says that in addition to the findings of increased risks of exposure, there is the unsolved issue of waste disposal and security. He questions whether nuclear power should continue to be part of the sustainable energy constellation.
“The nation has still never figured out what to do with nuclear waste, the toxic poisons that are still being stored onsite,” he says.
C-10 Foundation’s Research Assistant Debbie Grinnell says that “the current administration is in a push to include nuclear power as part of the energy plan for the future and yet we have 300,000 years that we need to keep this toxic waste safe.”
Nord has been a researcher and lecturer on nuclear energy since the 1970s, when he moved to the region to stop the construction of Seabrook Station. In addition to several college appearances in the area, Nord has been a guest lecturer at the University of New Hampshire’s Environmental Science Department for 10 years.
“I am interested in trying to alert my fellow citizens to the dangers of atomic power,” Nord says.
C-10’s primary role as an agency is to conduct “real time” monitoring of the radiation levels emanating from Seabrook Station. They have posted 17 stations within the neighboring Massachusetts area that have been collecting data since Seabrook opened in 1990. They also monitor security and safety at the plant.
The foundation receives its funding through a 10 percent assessment from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, or MEMA. These funds are provided by the state emergency agency to give first responders immediate emergency radiation tracking information. Nord will demonstrate monitoring equipment during his April 17 talk.
“C-10 runs the most advanced monitoring system in the United States. This is the best real-time radiation monitoring,” Nord says.
C-10 hopes to have a more public profile and to call attention to the anniversaries of nuclear accidents Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, both atomic energy disasters.
Grinnell points out that “while we are celebrating Earth Day we have to remember that we have a nuclear power plant in our back yard. At C-10 we are committed to a safe future of renewables.”
For information on this fre
U.S. backs down on nuclear enrichment ban | Published April 23rd, 2008
VIENNA, Austria - Facing opposition from Canada and others, U.S. negotiators at a nuclear meeting have dropped their insistence on a ban on the transfer of uranium enrichment technology to non-nuclear states, diplomats said yesterday.
globeandmail.com: Consumers to pay price for nuclear cost overruns: "the total cost for getting two of the idle reactors up and running will now range between $3.1-billion and $3.4-billion, well above the initial estimate of $2.5-billion."
Enel to build a nuclear power plant in Italy to tap into nuclear revival - CEO - Forbes.com: "Italy banned the use of nuclear energy in Italy in 1987, but Silvio Berlusconi, the head of a right-wing coalition that earlier this month won general elections, advocates the reintroduction of nuclear power and believes it could take five years to build a power plant."
wcbstv.com - Generator problems force officials to close down Indian Point 2: "Indian Point Shut Down
(AP)
Officials say New York's Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant has been shut down because operators noticed water levels dropping in the steam generator."
Colombia Reflects Rising Threat of Nuclear Terrorism : NPR: "The Colombian government revealed last month that the country's FARC rebels were seeking to acquire enriched uranium. The rebels may have been more interested in trading the uranium to a terrorist group than in developing it into nuclear arms for their own purposes."
Energy Interview: Amory Lovins: "Power Q&A: Amory Lovins
NEWS:�The energy-efficiency guru who cofounded the Rocky Mountain Institute advocates feebates, negawatts, and letting the little guys play."
How New Energy Order Will Dramatically Change our Daily Lives | Environment | AlterNet: "It's strange that the business and geopolitics of energy takes up so little space on American front pages -- or that we could conduct an oil war in Iraq with hardly a mention of the words 'oil' and 'war' in the same paragraph in those same papers over the years. Strange indeed. And yet, oil rules our world and energy lies behind so many of the headlines that might seem to be about other matters entirely."
The Nuclear OptionA decade and a year after Enrico Fermi demonstrated the first atomic fission chain reaction, President Dwight D. Eisenhower went before the United Nations General Assembly to avert an apocalypse. Other nations now had in their hands the weapon with which the United States had pulverized two Japanese cities; altruistic scientists and eager investors both had pressured the president to share the technology for peaceful uses.
Click on title for Mother's full feature !
A new British study similar to a report we released in 2001 has found that coastal nuclear power plants take a huge toll on sea life, especially fish. In our landmark report: Licensed to Kill: How the nuclear power industry destroys endangered marine wildlife and ocean habitat to save money, we revealed that fish, fingerlings, sea turtles and other animals were killed and harmed and stocks depleted by the intake systems at nuclear reactors. Now, Dr. Peter Henderson, a researcher at Oxford University, has found that nuclear power intake systems in Britain are responsible for destroying as much as half the commercial catch for some species. "The number of animals killed is colossal,” Dr. Henderson told The Times.
Exclusive: Cops and Former Secret Service Agents Ran Black Ops on Green Groups: "NEWS:�Meet the private security firm that spied on Greenpeace and other environmental outfits for corporate clients. A tale of intrigue, infiltration, and dumpster-diving.
FULL TEXT BY CLICKING ON TITLE
By James Ridgeway
Additional reporting by David Corn, Jennifer Wedekind, Daniel Schulman, and Nick Baumann
April 11, 2008"
for Corporate Clients | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNetThe security firm was run by former Secret Service officers. The operatives infiltrated environmental groups, collected their phone records and confidential internal documents, and even went through their trash. The information was then passed on to public relations firms and corporations involved in environmental controversies
AMY GOODMAN interviews J. Ridgeway on his report.
Eco-Cide: Exploring Ecology: "316(b): Environmentalists vs benefit-cost analysis"n accepting an appeal on the role of cost-benefit analysis in establishing standards under the Clean Water Act, the Supreme Court on Monday set the stage for what could be an important post-Election Day debate over environmental policy.
Doctor blames health woes on radioactivity
By Khalil Al Assali, Correspondent
Published: April 04, 2008, 00:44
Occupied Jerusalem: According to the founder of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, there is no need for modern technology to prove that nuclear radioactivity is widely found in the southern part of Hebron's villages.
Dr Mahmoud Sa'adeh from Yatta in Hebron to the south of the West Bank said: "This phenomenon appeared in 1986 when inhabitants started to notice the spread of strange diseases in the area without knowing what the cause was. After the nuclear expert Mordechai Vanunu, who worked at the Dimona nuclear reactor declared that there is a leak in radioactivity in Southern Israel, we began to relate these radiations to the increase in cancer cases especially at Al Thahiriyeh, a town only 25 kilometres from the Dimona reactor," he said.
"There are more than 200 different cases of cancer and it has become clear that there is an increase in infertility cases, which reached 65 per cent. In addition, early miscarriages spread and one of the significant cases was when eight women in one neighbourhood miscarried in the span of one day," Dr Sa'adeh told Gulf News.
"I'm a physicist and I've been working for about 30 years in Al Thahiriyeh. I confirm that the cases I witnessed in recent years have no explanation except that of nuclear radioactivity," added Dr Sa'adeh. "Heredity cannot be the sole reason ... because there are deformity cases and cancer among families who are total strangers and from different tribes."
Dr Sa'adeh confirmed that he had been to Jordan and had learnt that Al Karak, an area which is antipodal to the Hebron mountains also suffers from a great percentage of cancer.
"I don't exaggerate when I say that cancer cases have become a daily phenomenon in these areas due to nuclear radioactivity. There are children who are born without hands and others who are born with a deformity in their face or body. Moreover, skin tumours are spreading among people because of these fatal radiations and the men in the villages of South Hebron suffer from a great deal of hair loss," Dr Sa'adeh confirmed in a report that was published last summer about this phenomenon.
The Palestinian Authority has completely refused to discuss the subject considering it dangerous and very sensitive to their security. The Palestinian Authority also refused to undertake an official investigation regarding Dr Sa'adeh's data emphasising that the spread of cancer is not considered a phenomenon.
A statement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that cancer is present within the normal average.
"There's an unusual spread of leukaemia in the southern part of the West Bank," confirmed the Israeli doctor Mikha'il Shabira from Hadassah Ein Karim hospital in occupied Jerusalem.
As for Israeli researcher Afnir Finghosh from Ben Gurion University, he emphasised that according to a research published last year, radioactivity results from the existence of radioactive materials like uranium and radon gas.
Intensity
He also confirmed that this is a phenomenon that includes Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula. "We found that the intensity is 10 times more than the normal average in the groundwater than the radium," said Finghosh.
"The machines used by the energy authority are old," said Dr Khalil Thabayneh who obtained his PhD in nuclear physics and radioactive pollution.
"We carried out botanical studies in the southern part of Hebron, took some samples from the soil, and sent it for examination in Egypt. The tests confirmed that there are areas to the south of Al Thahiriyeh, Yatta, and Al Sumoo' that contain a high percentage of radioactivity and even that some of the percentages are approximately twice over the normal range," Dr Thabayneh told local media.
The question is not whether nuclear radioactivity exists but what Palestinian inhabitants observe daily.
A number of Palestinian citizens believe that there are certain places where the Israeli military buries the nuclear waste, and one of those places according to some citizens is Bani Na'im.
The citizens said that huge Israeli trucks empty their load inside a huge cave with a closed entrance. They claim that they use cement pieces the same colour of the rock to conceal it.
There are children who are born without hands and others who are born with a deformity in their face or body."
Dr Mahmoud Sa'adeh, Founder, Palestinian Medical Relief Society
North County News - Award winning local news for the Hudson Valley, NY: "A panel of 12 nuclear experts hired by Entergy Nuclear, owner of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plants in Buchanan, has started to work on the safety assessment for two reactors.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the federal oversight agency, ordered a safety review in early March because of several operating problems and Entergy’s repeated failures to complete their new emergency siren system. Entergy has applied for new operating licenses for Units One and Two, which expire in 2013 and 2015."
Institute for Policy Studies: Nuclear Policy: "The Nuclear Policy Project focuses on three issues: strategic integration of nuclear material management into nuclear arsenal reductions and ending production of nuclear explosives, accountability of the nuclear weapons states to their citizens relative to social, environmental, safety, and health impacts, and structural collapse of Cold War nuclear institutions."
Westinghouse wins first US nuclear deal in 30 years | World news | The Guardian: "The move underlines the worldwide renaissance of atomic power generation as a source of low-carbon energy."
Artdaily.org - The First Art Newspaper on the Net
Logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), designed by Gerald Holtom in 1958, which became a widespread peace symbol.
ALDERMASTON, UK.-The 50th anniversary of the debut of the peace logo and the first Aldermaston march was marked by the family of designer Gerald Holtom by traveling to Aldermaston. Gerald Holtom died in 1985. He designed the logo in 1958 for a march and based it on the fallen arms of a man in despair, while the semaphore signals for “N” and “D” combine within the circle of life.
Areva Consortium Wins Key U.K. Waste Management Contract
The French nuclear group Areva and two of its partners have won a five-year contract to manage a storage site for low-level radioactive waste in the United Kingdom and to create a national strategy for radioactive waste management.
The contract, worth 160 million euros, is the first that the U.K.'s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has awarded since it was created in 2005.
The Areva consortium is led by U.S. engineering group URS and includes Swedish nuclear waste company Studsvik and the U.K.'s Serco Assurances.
Complex Transformation: "This is a historic time for the public to speak out about nuclear weapons. The U.S. government has proposed a plan called Complex Transformation, which would refurbish the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex, the eight sites around the country that produce and maintain our nuclear weapons."
WATCH VIDEO
Endesa nuclear plant had radioactive leak: watchdog
| Environment
| Reuters: "In a Saturday statement, the CSN said the radioactive particles had been detected during routine inspection on the outside of buildings at the 1,000-megawatt plant.
'In the most unfavorable scenario it (radioactivity) may have caused doses to workers, the public and environment very much below established legal limits,' the statement said."
Endesa nuclear plant had radioactive leak: watchdog
| Environment
| Reuters: "In a Saturday statement, the CSN said the radioactive particles had been detected during routine inspection on the outside of buildings at the 1,000-megawatt plant.
'In the most unfavorable scenario it (radioactivity) may have caused doses to workers, the public and environment very much below established legal limits,' the statement said."
TATYANA SINITSYNA: Ukraine's nuclear authorities are playing with fire: "Experts say that the use of Westinghouse assemblies in Russian-made reactors will considerably increase the risk of an accident at the Yuzhnoukrainsky nuclear power plant."
Millstone Nuclear Power Plant Incident Investigated -- Nuclear Power, New London County -- Newsday.com: "The operator of the Millstone 2 nuclear power plant in Waterford is investigating how 1,000 gallons of water from a reactor cooling system inadvertently leaked into a water storage tank Sunday, a mistake a company spokesman said has never before happened at the facility.
No water was released into the environment, although the incident did cause a 'minute amount' of radioactive gases to leak through an air vent in the storage tank, according to spokesmen for Dominion, the plant's owner, and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission."
NRC warns of counterfeits
Two nuclear operators in the USA discovered that they had purchased counterfeit parts during 2007, it was revealed by safety regulators. None of the parts had been used in safety-related systems.
2 die in Pakistan nuclear plant accident - Yahoo! News: "ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A gas leak sparked an explosion and fire Tuesday at a nuclear plant that is believed to produce enriched plutonium for Pakistan's atomic weapons program. Two workers were killed."
Read More......Chernobyl Update - CBS News Report - Chernobyl and Eastern Europe Blog: "Chernobyl Update - CBS News Report
We're closing in on the 22 year anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Ukraine. In the next several weeks, I hope to add some new content to the site outside of this blog.
The following 2-minute clip is a report from CBS News regarding the accident and construction of the New Safe Confinement structure:"
Indian Point worker awaits court date on child pornography charges | lohud.com | The Journal News: "HIGHLAND FALLS -An Indian Point maintenance mechanic is awaiting his day in court on charges that he sent nude photos of himself over the Internet to an undercover police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl."
MySpace.com Blogs - NoNuke.org MySpace Blog
A BLOG OF NOTE !
Indian Point on the Potomac: Entergy's New Safety Panel and PR Firm | Center for Media and Democracy: "There's no question that New York's Indian Point nuclear power plant could use some public relations help. But Entergy, Indian Point's owner, might have chosen their new PR firm a little more carefully.
Last year, the state of New York asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to deny the plant's license extension application, citing 'a long and troubling history of problems.' It was 'the first time that a state had stepped forward to flatly oppose license renewals,' according to the New York Times."
Will Al Gore Help Shut the Nuke Power Loophole? - CommonDreams.org
Published on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
Will Al Gore Help Shut the Nuke Power Loophole?
by Harvey Wasserman
Today Al Gore is unveiling a massive campaign to fight climate chaos.
But the hugely funded atomic power industry has jumped on global warming with the Big Lie that its failed reactors can somehow help. It’s a sorry replay of the 1950s promise that atomic power would be “too cheap to meter.”
Time to press the nuclear start button - Telegraph: "The visit by President Sarkozy allowed the point to be made even more forcefully. Not only are we to have an atomic renaissance but we are to work closely with the French in order to deliver it."
North County News - Award winning local news for the Hudson Valley, NY: "Last week two security guards tested positive for cocaine at the Indian Point nuclear power plants in Buchanan. The incident comes just a month after an on-site construction company supervisor tested positive for alcohol.
Despite the emphasis on security since 9/11, the industry hasn’t been able to lessen drug and alcohol use at nuclear facilities."
Does nuclear energy produce no CO2 ?: "Proponents of nuclear power always say that one of the big benefits of nuclear power
is that it produces no Carbon dioxide (CO2).
This is completely untrue, as a moment's consideration will demonstrate that fossil fuels, especially oil in the form of gasoline and diesel, are essential to every stage of the nuclear cycle, and CO2 is given off whenever these are used."
Redniss was Pulitzer-nominated by the New York Times for her wild “Op Art” editorials — and she composed the brilliant book Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies.
Picture Gallery: "World Nuclear Association Picture Library"
Say no to nuclear power - Los Angeles Times
In a recent speech in Santa Barbara, Schwarzenegger decried environmentalists who use scare tactics to "frighten everyone that we're going to have another blowup and all of those things." He was referring to the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island disasters, which thoroughly soured Americans on the concept of nuclear power. It's true that Chernobyl was an ill-maintained monstrosity, and nuclear safety has improved since the 1979 Three Mile Island meltdown. It's flatly wrong to conclude that this means nuclear plants are safe.
FACTS ON NUCLEAR ENERGY
Take part in the poster campaign
- Make use of the possibility to download the posters as a pdf file and to print them yourself, or to print them in a copy-shop as A4 or A1-format.
- Display the posters at your work, at home, in your surgery etc. and talk about them to others.
- Make a link to the poster campaign on your homepag
American Earth - Home
Environmental activists and the conservation-minded will find new inspiration this Earth Day, April 22nd, when The Library of America releases the first definitive anthology of American environmental writing: AMERICAN EARTH: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, edited by Bill McKibben with a foreword by Al Gore.
“If you had to choose but one environmental book this season, make it American Earth.”
~ Booklist (starred review)
“Thanks to American Earth, I know the passion of these writers will continue inspiring Americans to protect our country for generations to come.”
~ Carol Browner, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (1993-2001)
“Superb. . . . American Earth can be read as a survey of the literature of American environmentalism, but above all, it should be enjoyed for the sheer beauty of the writing.”
~ Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
The Rush to Patent the Atomic Bomb : NPR: "The U.S. atomic bomb was such a secret, scientists and engineers sometimes talked in code. It was the Manhattan Project, not 'The Atomic Bomb Project.' Plutonium was referred to as 'copper,' and the bomb itself as 'the gadget.'"
But at the same time, scientists and engineers were furiously filing secret patent applications that described many of the parts in exquisite detail. Those patents sat not behind the fences at Los Alamos, but in a vault at the U.S. Patent Office.
GoLeft TV
The Daily Left - March 26th
US Mistakenly Ships Missile Parts to Taiwan; Less Than 1% of Domestic Flights Secured; KBR Exposed Workers to Toxic Chemicals; Explosives Went Undetected for 3 Weeks Near Capitol; NATO Escorts Russian Bombers Away From Alaska; Treasury Secretary Says Social Security is "Unsustainable"; Cartoon by Matt Filipowicz
Czech artists acquitted in trial over faked nuclear blast on TV - International Herald Tribune
PRAGUE, Czech Republic: Czech artists who hacked into a national television weather broadcast to show what appeared to be a nuclear explosion were acquitted by a court on Tuesday of the criminal charge of spreading false information, a TV station reported.
Bright Morning Star Reunion Concert - Benefit for Safe and Green CampaignMarch 29
8 pm
All Souls Church, 399 Main St, Greenfield, MA
Tickets: $15/adult $8/child in advance
at Everyone's books, Food for Thought, Boswell's Books, World Eye Bookshop
$18 at the door
Check out the new youtube video!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5tsNww2CwM&fmt=18
BRIGHT MORNING STAR toured North America from 1978 - 1990 mixing folk, country,
blues, jazz and a good dose of theatre. Almost 20 years later they're back,
re-grouped with 2 decades of individual performance experience under their
collective belt, livelier and more astute then ever. Their backgrounds range
from classical music to rock and roll, from folk to top 40, from symphony
orchestra to avant-garde theater. They combine their musical and theatrical
skills in a journey through the worlds of drama, politics, people, humor,
satire, and spirituality.
They've energized their repertoire with new material while holding onto
classics just old enough to sound brand new (given recurring social and
political realities). Their songs are a rare combination of powerful, often
original lyrics and rich melodies that shine in intricate harmonies - often
acapella or 6 voice and piano. In the course of a concert, they pass around
guitars, fiddle, bass, banjo, harmonica, recorder, trombone, piano and the
occasional kazoo. Their cabaret style adds a comic irony to traditional songs
and a surprising depth to contemporary pieces. Lyrical, fun, dramatic and
incendiary - this is a show not to be missed!
Bright Morning Star is COURT DORSEY, CHERYL FOX, GEORGE FULGINITI-SHAKAR, KEN
GILES, CHARLIE KING, and MARCIA TAYLOR
A benefit concert for the Safe and Green Campaign, an alliance of autonomous
town groups within 20 miles of ENVY working on education, organization and
coordination with three cosponsors—Citizens Awareness Network (CAN), New
England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution (NEC), and Nuclear Free Vermont (NFV).
______________________________________________________________
STOP THE IMPORT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE!
SUPPORT HR 5632—CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW
On March 2, we told you about EnergySolutions’ scheme to import some 20,000 tons of radioactive waste from Italy to the U.S. EnergySolutions wants to bring this waste in through the ports of Charleston, SC and New Orleans, LA; ship it to Tennessee for various types of “processing”—including incineration and possible “recycling” into consumer and industrial goods—and then send what’s left for burial in the company’s shallow landfill in Utah.
click here for full text....
This is a fight we have to win! EnergySolutions’ scheme would open the door to making the U.S. the dumping ground for the world’s radioactive waste. Help stop this dangerous precedent with your contribution here on our secure online server.
There have been two important developments:
Legislative: Reps. Gordon (TN), Whitfield (KY) and Matheson (UT) have introduced HR 5632, a bill to ban the import of such radioactive waste. The text of the bill is below. However, the bill isn’t going anywhere unless we all back it loudly and clearly. Please call your Representative today and demand that he/she cosponsor HR 5632, and work to get this bill to the House floor and on to the Senate. Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
*A big thank-you to those of you who have contributed toward our obtaining the technology necessary to enable you to send e-mails to your Congressmembers directly from our Alerts. However, we still have a ways to go before we can afford this. You can help with your contribution here. We want to make this available to you, but we need dedicated funding to do so. Your help is essential.
Regulatory: Thanks to all your efforts, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the comment period on this proposal until June 10, 2008. Those of you on our mailing list will soon be receiving a comment postcard you can mail directly to the NRC, or to NIRS and we’ll send it on to the NRC.
The postcard states simply:
Don’t let the United States become the world’s radioactive waste dumping ground!
I urge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny license applications IW023 and XW013. These applications would allow EnergySolutions to import some 20,000 tons--a million cubic feet--of radioactive waste from Italy into the United States. Energy-Solutions proposes to ship this waste into SC and LA, “process” it in Tennessee, where it could be incinerated, dumped in regular trash landfills, or “recycled” into consumer and industrial goods, and then ship the remainder to Utah for shallow land burial.
This scheme is fraught with unnecessary danger, could increase radiation exposures to the public, and would set a terrible precedent. The United States must not become the dumping ground for the world’s radioactive waste. These applications must be rejected.
If you don’t want to wait, or aren’t on our mailing list, you can e-mail these comments, or your own thoughts, directly to the NRC at secy@nrc.gov and reference license applications IW023 and XW013.
And if you want more postcards to pass out in your community, let us know and we’ll send them to you.
We can stop this scheme and prevent the U.S. from becoming an international radioactive waste dumping ground. Your actions will make the difference!
Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
6930 Carroll Avenue, #340
Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-6477
nirsnet@nirs.org, www.nirs.org
For updates, technical and background information, stay in touch with Diane D’Arrigo of NIRS at dianed@nirs.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you haven’t yet signed the Simple Statement on Nuclear Power and Climate, please do so here: http://www.nirs.org/petition2/index.php (but please don’t sign multiple times!). If you have signed, please pass this address on to your friends, colleagues, congregations, PTA groups, and any other e-mail lists you have!
Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes: Indian Point under fire: "New York is the first state to formally oppose relicensing of a nuclear power plant
At a time when the rest of the world is experiencing what is called a 'nuclear renaissance,' the situation in the Empire State appears to be retrograding into a dark age where all things nuclear are considered a threat, and often on an emotional rather than rational basis.
The relicensing hearing now being conducted by the NRC seems more like the medieval hunt for the unicorn portrayed in tapestries at the Cloisters in New York than a modern 21st century assessment of nuclear energy technologies."
An American Way for a Zero Carbon Future
Roy Morrison 603-496-4260
sustainability@snhu.edu (600 words)
www.roymorrison.net
__________________________________________________________
An American Way for a Zero Carbon Future
By Roy Morrison, Director, Office for Sustainability, Southern New Hampshire
University
If we’re concerned about global warming, endless wars for oil, nuclear
proliferation, and our economic future then we need to face four very convenient
truths.
Combining four very American enthusiasms: the automobile, electricity, free
renewable fuel, and market opportunities, makes a zero carbon future ours for
the taking.
That’s right. In this zero carbon future we can drive with no gas and no
pollution, turn on our computers to connect us to a smart global grid, and get
checks in the mail every month for our troubles.
The technologies are at hand or need just the slightest push. New plug-in
electric cars using lithium-ion batteries will be charged at night from a
renewable grid and help provide peak daytime power while we’re at work. This is
doable. Just a small percentage of our millions of cars can give us much of the
energy needed to balance and stabilize a renewable energy grid system.
Copious wind resources on farm and ranch land from the Dakotas to Texas will be
combined with solar electric concentrators and PV panels from the South West and
local PV arrays covering our roofs and parking lots. DC power lines, underground
if necessary, will facilitate moving the power to where it’s needed.
The system will be integrated and coordinated through a smart electric grid
using real time price control to optimize energy use and energy generation.
We’ll buy power when it’s cheap, and sell it back into the grid when it’s
expensive.
By using renewable energy hedges, like the one negotiated between Southern New
Hampshire University and PPM Energy, every energy consumer and car and PV panel
owner will have a profitable stake in our common renewable energy future. We can
use our energy purchases and investments in plug in vehicles and photovoltaics
to fix our net annual energy expenses for a generation, and receive monthly
income for buying our grid tied cars and home PV systems.
We don’t need to subsidize nukes and watch more countries build bombs while we
pile up the waste. We don’t need to subsidize corn ethanol and turn food for a
hungry world into fuel that raises food prices for the poor and does little to
reduce net carbon. We don’t need to lop off the top of our mountains and
subsidize “clean coal”, or try to capture and inject carbon dioxide into the
ground in the hopes it will stay there for five-hundred years. We don’t have to
send our kids and loved ones to fight wars for oil when we have more than enough
energy from the sun and wind.
And yes there’s more. Combined heat and power that turns every heating system
into a micro-generator, and district heating from existing urban power plants
should play a part. Compressed air, capacitors, and flywheels can help balance
the renewable grid. We need to adopt high efficiency standards and zero
pollution industrial ecological practices using “waste” from one process as
input for another. We can use duck weed and water hyacinths fed by our sewage
plants and agricultural runoff to produce enormous amounts of biomass for
bio-fuels.
We can make the whole thing work rather painlessly by phasing out income taxes,
abolishing the IRS, and phasing in ecological consumption taxes on all goods and
services. If something pollutes more, it will cost more. If something pollutes
les, it will cost less. The market price, not just regulation will tell us what
to do.
Wake up America. Let’s use our cars, electricity, free renewable fuel, and the
market to build a zero carbon, sustainable, and peaceful future.
________________________
Roy Morison is Director of the Office for Sustainability at Southern New
Hampshire University. His latest book is Markets, Democracy & Survival available
online at www.RMAenergy.net. He can be contacted at
www.roymorrison.net
Fact check:
1. Renewable Resource Technologies and Potential:
A.. Excellent summary discussion of technologies and U.S. renewable resource
potential and plans to integrate and coordinate renewabletems is
Carbon-Free and Nuclear Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy by Arjun
Makhijani, Ph.D. http://wwww.ieer.org
i. Solar (From Page 43):
The semi-arid and deserareas in the Southwest and West not only have the
greatest incident energy, but also the greatest number of cloudless days. Those
regions are therefore excellent candidates for central station solar PV,
especially since this technology, unlike fossil fuel and nuclear plants, does
not require cooling water. At 15 percent efficiency, a square meter of land with
insolation at about seven kilowatt hours per square meter would generate about
400 kilowatt hours per year. Hence, an amount equal to about a trillion kilowatt
hours – one-fourth of today’s annual electricity output – could be produced on
about 650,000 acres – a square with a side of just over 30 miles. With ancillary
facilities, it would be a square with a side of about 35 miles.
ii. Wind: (From page 31-32)
Table 3-3: Wind Energy Potential in the Top 20 Contiguous States, in Billion
Kilowatt Hours/Year
State Wind potential
North Dakota 1,210 Texas 1,190 Kansas 1,070 South Dakota 1,030 Montana 1,020
Nebraska 868 Wyoming 747 Oklahoma 725 Minnesota 657 Iowa 551 Colorado 481
New Mexico 435 Idaho 73 Michigan 65 New York 62 Illinois 61 California 59
Wisconsin 58 Maine 56Missouri 52
Total 10,470
U.S. elec. generation, 2005: 4,000 (rounded)
Potential percent of 2005 generation 261 percent
Wind energy generation, 2006 about 30 (0.7 percent)
Sources: AWEA 2006b; EIA AER 2006 Table 8.2a, AWEA 2007, and EIA AEO 2006 Table
16.
Note: For wind class category 3 and higher. Land use exclusions such as national
parks, urban areas, etc., have been factored in to the estimate.
It is clear that overall potential is vast – over two-and-a-half times total
U.S.
electricity generation in the United States in 2005. The wind energy potential
in each one of the top six states – North Dakota, Texas, Kansas, South Dakota,
Montana, Nebraska – is greater than the total nuclear electricity generation
from
all 103 operating U.S. nuclear power plants. The wind energy resource is quite
sufficient to supply the entire electricity requirement of the country for some
time to come under any scenario, if total potential were the only consideration.
Of course, it is not. Intermittency is a critical issue. Secondly, the
geographic
location of the wind resource is another potential constraint. It is
concentrated in
the Midwest and the Rocky Mountain states while the population of the United
States is concentrated along the coasts. Figures 3-2(a) and 3-2(b) illustrate
this
issue; the former shows population density and the latter shows the map of wind
energy.2 (see color insert) Tapping into a large amount of the high-density
landbased wind resource will require transmission infrastructure to take the
electricity to transmission system hubs from where it would be taken to
population
centers. Transmission corridors exist going eastwards and westwards from the
center of the country. But the wind resource is dispersed and it must be
delivered
to the hubs. Second, the capacity of some of the lines to carry the electricity
would have to be expanded. The maps illustrate the importance of developing
offshore wind energy resources, which are closer to the large population and
electricity consumption centers of the United States.
One advantage of the geographic concentration of wind resources in the
continental United States is that much of it is located in the Midwestern Farm
Belt.
Since crops can be planted and cattle can graze right up to the wind turbine
towers,wind farms are quite compatible with growing crops and ranching. They can
provide a reliable and steady source of income to farmers and ranchers,
insulating them, to some extent, from the vagaries of commodity markets.
A-1. For a European Renewable Grid model see work of Gregor Czisch
“Analysis: A Super grid for Europe” By STEFAN NICOLA
UPI Energy Correspondent Published: Nov. 2, 2007 at 10:39 AM
BERLIN, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Europe’s electricity grids are old and often not capable
of providing trans-border, much less trans-continent energy security. Yet one
German energy expert has come up with a visionary scenario that would overhaul
the grids, increase energy security and at the same time help avoid climate
change.
Gregor Czisch’s dissertation has rattled the energy world. Its main claim: Given
the political will, Europe could within a few years meet 100 percent of its
electricity needs from renewable energy sources, at no cost difference to
today’s fossil fuel-based system. The scenario includes the construction of a
high-voltage direct current European super grid linking all countries in Europe,
and the continent externally to Africa and the Middle East.
"We have the technical abilities to build such a super grid within three to five
years," Czisch, an energy systems modeling expert at the University of Kassel,
told United Press International in a telephone interview. "We just need to
commit to this big long-term strategy."
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2007/11/02/analysis_a_
super_grid_for_europe/5729/
. B. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) DOE
http://www.nrel.gov/
Renewable Resources Could Provide 99 Percent of U.S. Electricity Generation
by 2020
Draft NREL report is available at:
http://www.nirs.org/alternatives/factoid18.htm
The draft document had earlier been available for inspection at:
C. A Solar Grand Plan: Scientific American
By 2050 solar power could end US dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse
gas emissions. Dec 16, 2007
www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan - 49k - Cached - Similar pages
D. Energy Storage Developments
Energy storage nears its day in the sun: Scientific American
Feb 22, 2008 www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=energy-storage-nears-its - 40k
D-1 Powering GM's Electric Vehicles By Kevin Bulli. MIT Technology Review
Thursday, January 11, 2007
“Recent advances in battery chemistry and systems design could lead to working
prototypes by year's end.”
www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=batteries&id=18
054
-
E. Renewable energy hedges
SNHU Goes Carbon-Neutral; Southern New Hampshire University
SNHU Goes Carbon-Neutral. Saturday, May 19, 2007. SNHU Communications Office.
Southern New Hampshire University is the first carbon-neutral university ...
www.snhu.edu/6886.asp - 16k
See also www.ecopowerhedge.com and www.rmaenergy.net
F. Ecological Taxation
Markets, Democracy & Survival by Roy Morrison
www.rmaenergy.net
=============
--
Roy Morrison & Associates, LLC
Eco Power Hedge, LLC
www.RMAenergy.net
www.EcoPowerHedge.com
603-496-4260
1-888-436-7176(fax)
P.O. Box 201, Warner, NH 03278
Nuclear trade group spent $1.3M lobbying: "WASHINGTON
The nuclear energy industry's main trade group spent $1.3 million to lobby the federal government in 2007, according to a disclosure form.
The Nuclear Energy Institute lobbied on various appropriations bills, including those dealing with energy and water development and the restructruing of the electric utility industry."
The group, whose members include Duke Energy Corp., Exelon Corp. and PPL Corp., spent $620,00 in the second half of 2007, according to the lobbying form posted online Feb. 13 by the Senate's public records office.
Last year, a handful of power companies submitted the first applications for new nuclear reactors in the U.S. in nearly 30 years, but none has committed to building the multibillion-dollar plants.
Besides Congress, the institute lobbied the White House, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Government Accountability Office and the departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Transportation and State.
Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995.
Nuclear energy | Hot property | Economist.com: "Markets have little experience of paying for them. Only in Finland, where a new plant—currently hundreds of millions of euros over budget—is being built by a consortium of big energy users, is something similar being tried."
Travel | Hanford nuclear tours fill up in one day | Seattle Times Newspaper: "The highlight of the tour is an hour spent inside B Reactor, which produced plutonium for the first atomic explosion in the New Mexico desert and the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in World War II."
All 2008 DOE Hanford Site Tours are currently full.
We're sorry but we are unable to maintain a waiting list.
Tour slots do come available from time to time so
please check back periodically.
Arnie: Let's look again at nuclear
Last day of Indian Point relicensing hearings focused on potential harm to humans and the Hudson. | lohud.com | The Journal News: "'Each and every one of our contentions raises either a safety or environmental concern that is critically important to the relicensing review undertaken by the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) and ultimately to the 20 million people living near Indian Point,' Riverkeeper lawyer Phillip Musegaas said in his opening statement yesterday."
Nuclear regulators seek comments on Yucca Mountain
| Environment
| Reuters: "HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Nuclear Regulatory Commission review board seeks information from members of the public interested in setting the direction of a hearing on Yucca Mountain, the long-delayed, high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada."
Feed Article | Business |: "PARIS, March 10 (Reuters) - France, the world's second largest producer of atomic energy, must act fast to avoid a shortage of skilled staff to run its reactors and win a role at the heart of a global nuclear revival.
An ageing workforce, a lack of courses and low enthusiasm among young engineers, for a field that is often seen as secretive or unsafe, all threaten France's ambitions for nuclear power."
newsobserver.com | Nuclear reactors' cost: $17 billion: "Building two nuclear reactors in Florida would cost Progress Energy $17 billion, which would increase the bills of the company's customers in that state by an average of 3 percent to 4 percent a year for 10 years."
The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change - SourceWatch
Dear Friends,
Below are two articles on the upcoming hearings (click on "more" for hearings schedule info). What is amazing – and is very much the result of the grassroots effort is this:
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said of the agency's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. "Keep in mind that with Indian Point, this is the largest number of contentions that have been submitted in a license-renewal proceeding." It's also the first time that the host state has so strongly opposed an extension.
Score one point for democracy.
Michel
click on "more" for full text/letter
___________________________________________________________
March 9, 2008
Nuclear plant hearings start tomorrow
Greg Clary The Journal News
BUCHANAN - Indian Point's application to continue making electricity through 2035 comes to a White Plains courthouse this week, where a three-person panel will ask detailed questions of opponents seeking to stop the plant from getting a 20-year license renewal.
Those who have filed arguments against the relicensing application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission include the states of New York and Connecticut; Westchester County and the town of Cortlandt; and environmental groups such as Riverkeeper and Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.
A consortium of grass-roots organizations represented by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, and Spring Valley lawyer Susan Shapiro has been given an April 1 hearing date at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md., because of scheduling conflicts.
The issues to be raised in the three days of hearings include the region's dense population and the chances for success during an emergency evacuation, as well as the nuclear plant's impact on Hudson River aquatic life.
"They have so much ground to cover," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said of the agency's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. "Keep in mind that with Indian Point, this is the largest number of contentions that have been submitted in a license-renewal proceeding."
It's also the first time that the host state has so strongly opposed an extension.
Of the 48 other nuclear reactors that have appealed for 20-year extensions to their initial 40-year operating licenses, none have been turned down. The NRC is reviewing license renewal applications for another 11 of the nation's 104 reactors. There is no limit to the number of extensions that a reactor can receive.
Entergy Nuclear, the plant's owner and operator, will have its team of legal and engineering experts to counter opponents' arguments, in what Sheehan said would include a lot of back and forth between the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board and the participants.
Without the license renewals, Indian Point 2 would have to close in 2013, and Indian Point 3 in 2015.
Westchester County will lead off the 10 a.m. hearing tomorrow by asking to be linked to the state's 32 contentions as a full participant rather than an "interested government body."
The county didn't submit its own contentions, which according to NRC regulations should keep its lawyers from directly participating, but have since requested a chance to be included with the state.
As to the substance of some of the nearly 100 contentions submitted against the extension, the state's top lawyer will be the first to speak.
"This is such a unique proceeding before the NRC," said Joan Leary Matthews, who as a deputy New York attorney general beat the car manufacturers in the 1990s on a case that ultimately required tighter pollution controls on new vehicles. "We don't even know if they're going to ask us questions about every one (of the state's 32 contentions)."
The state's list of problems with the 20 extra years dovetails with Riverkeeper's in a couple of areas:
- The nuclear plant's use of Hudson River water to cool its operation and the resulting release of warmed water, known as thermal pollution.
- The need to accurately gauge metal fatigue in critical infrastructure at the plant, including underground piping.
Riverkeeper officials said they expect to bring three lawyers and four experts, including a retired nuclear engineer and a specialist in aquatic habitats.
"This is a really important day or week," said Diane Curran, the organization's outside counsel. "The contentions that are admitted will determine the scope of the hearings. There isn't anything else that gets heard by these judges. So, for us, this is kind of like the gateway."
NRC officials said the board would not make any determinations in the coming week about which arguments will be accepted for further review or who will make the cut to be a direct participant.
That is slated to be completed within the next two months. After that, appeals must first go through the NRC itself, a five-member board that sets policy for the agency. Beyond that, those who aren't satisfied with the agency's decision could seek relief in federal courts.
Riverkeeper and New York State officials said they were prepared for that, if necessary.
_____________________________________________________
March 6, 2008
Arguments start on Indian Point license renewal
By Abby Luby North County News
Groups opposed to renewing Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant’s operating license will have a chance to argue their cases in public next week.
Starting Monday, a panel of three judges will ask state and local governments and environmental organizations about contentions that they filed last November against the re-licensing application made by Indian Point’s owner, Entergy Nuclear. The judges make up the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, an independent judicial arm of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the federal oversight agency for nuclear power plants.
The myriad contentions against renewing Entergy’s operating license generally claim that the 40-year-old plant is no longer safe. Three years ago, leaks of radioactive tritium and strontium-90 from the spent nuclear fuel pools were found in the groundwater beneath Indian Point and in the Hudson River. Also, Entergy has missed two deadlines in the past year to fix the failing siren system that alerts people within 10 miles of the plant of emergencies.
“The aim here is to allow the judges to gain a better understanding of the issues that have already been submitted in the contentions,” said Neil Sheehan, spokesperson for the NRC. “If there is new information it has to be filed under a separate motion.”
Entergy seeks a 20-year extension of its current 40-year operating license set to expire in 2013 and 2015 for Unit 2 and 3 reactors. The new license will allow the Buchanan facility to stay on line until 2033 and 2035. The re-licensing process, which could take up to two years, was started in April 2007 when Entergy submitted its 2,500-page application to the NRC. The NRC has never denied a license renewal application by a utility company.
Margo Schepart of the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network, a grass roots organization seeking to shut down the plant, said that filing contentions was difficult, expensive and required legal consultation.
“The NRC tried to knock us out every step along the way and now we made it through their hoops,” she said. “We look forward to meeting the panel of judges face to face.”
The NRC has consistently said that the re-licensing process looks only at how aging plants are managed and whether operating components within the plant can keep the utility running safely. In 2007, Westchester County Executive Andy Spano petitioned the NRC to change the re-licensing criteria to include emergency evacuation plans, proximity to dense population areas and vulnerability to terrorist attacks. The NRC denied the petition and Spano appealed it to the United States Court of Appeals where it is still pending.
Two bills currently in Congress propose that a mandatory Independent Safety Assessment review (ISA) of Indian Point be a condition for a new operating license. The ISA would be done by specialists not connected with the utility or the NRC. One bill is sponsored by New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). The Congressional bill was introduced over a year ago by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-Middletown) and was co-sponsored by Reps. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx), Nita Lowey (D-Harrison), and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and John Hall (D-Dover Plains). The bill is still in the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Several counties and municipalities that have already passed ISA resolutions supporting the pending congressional bill include Westchester and Rockland County, Croton, Ossining, Beacon, Putnam Valley, Ramapo and Cortlandt.
The NRC has claims that the plant already undergoes independent assessments by independent contractors not connected with the oversight agency.
Spearheading the opposition for New York State at the hearings will be Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who will be joined by five other states attorneys general from Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kentucky and Vermont. Scheduled to appear before the panel on Monday are Westchester County and the State of New York; Tuesday: The Town of Cortlandt, the State of Connecticut and Riverkeeper; Wednesday: Hudson River Sloop, Clearwater and Connecticut Residents Opposed to Relicensing of Indian Point (CRORIP); Thursday: Westchester Citizens’ Awareness Network, Rockland County Conservation Association, Public Health and Sustainable Energy and the Sierra Club.
The judges for the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel are Lawrence McDade, chairman; Dr. Kaye Lathrop and Dr. Richard Wardwell.
The sessions, open to the public for observation only, will be held at the Richard J. Daronco Courthouse, 111 Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. in White Plains. They are scheduled to start at 9 a.m. most mornings and run to 5 p.m. The judges can continue the discussion into the next day, if needed.
________________________________________________________
Schedule of Hearings
March hearings on the Indian Point license extension application, will be held at the Richard J. Daronco Courthouse, 111 Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd., White Plains. The proceedings are open to the public.
Tomorrow: Westchester County, the state of New York.
Tuesday: The town of Cortlandt, the state of Connecticut and Riverkeeper Inc.
Wednesday: Riverkeeper Inc., Hudson River Sloop Clearwater Inc. and Connecticut Residents Opposed to Relicensing of Indian Point (CRORIP).
April 1: NRC headquarters, Rockville Md. – Westchester Citizen’s Awareness Network; Rockland County Conservation Association; Public Health and Sustainable Energy; Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter
Michel Lee, Esq.
Steering Committee
Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition
Chairman
Council on Intelligent Energy
& Conservation Policy
P.O. Box 312
White Plains, New York 10602
(914) 420-5624
ciecplee@verizon.net
UPDATE 1-UK signals nuclear fast-track, offers new sites
| Industries
| Industrials, Materials & Utilities
| Reuters: "The government gave the go-ahead to a new generation of reactors in January, setting no limits on nuclear expansion and adding momentum to atomic energy's worldwide renaissance."
The Canadian Press: U.S. nuclear experts help clear Olympic sites in top-secret Beijing visits: "U.S. nuclear experts help clear Olympic sites in top-secret Beijing visits"
North County News - Award winning local news for the Hudson Valley, NY: "Groups opposed to renewing Power Plant’s operating license will have a chance to argue their cases in public next"
Burlington Free Press.com |: "MONTPELIER – Governor Jim Douglas today released an advisory report showing that Vermont can meet the goal of generating 25 percent of its total energy from renewable sources, principally from farms and forests, by 2025."
Dear Friends,
Here is a summary of some of the behind-the-scenes work that has been going on. Our strongest asset is an informed public. I have tried to be concise about what is a complicated issue. I hope that this is useful and that you will continue to do what you can to close the reactors at Indian Point. Please feel free to use this information in any way that is useful. Now is the best time to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper! We also need funds to carry on. Details are below, but please think about your involvement and what you can do.
Sincerely,
Marilyn Elie
Co-Founder, Westchester Citizens Awareness Network
click here for full text
The final battle has been joined. When Entergy applied to relicense the reactors at Indian Point, they initiated a complicated three-year process dictated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Forty-eight other nuclear plants across the country have already gone through the same procedure; 11 others are pending. So far, all have been approved; for most the NRC did not even go through the more rigorous evaluation in the hearing stage. If you think this approval rating indicates that the process is skewed in favor of industry, you are correct.
The only way to trigger a hearing is by filing contentions.Contentions list reasons the NRC should deny the plant a license to continue to operate. Under NRC regulations, concerns about theevacuation plan, population density, high-level radioactive waste and terrorism are not considered topics for contentions. Likewise, radioactive water leaking into the Hudson is not on the agenda because “it has already been entered into the company's corrective action program.” Only two categories for complaints are allowed under current rules: Environmental Concerns and Aging Equipment.
WestCAN filed contentions as did other environmental organizations and grassroots organizations. Even better, so did the Attorney General of the State of New York and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. WestCAN submitted many contentions, perhaps the strongest being the one on Fire Safety. Susan Shapiro has been the driving force behind these contentions. She and Assemblyman Richard Brodsky will act as our pro bono lawyers as the hearing progresses. Our expert witness is Ulrich Witte. His knowledge and familiarity with relicensing gave us a strong set of contentions. Ulrich is not pro bono and we need to pay him for his time and knowledge.
In the beginning, the NRC invited everyone to participate in the process. However it has turned out to be an extremely expensive, time consuming and stressful legal procedure. Submitting contentions was an extraordinary amount of work and expense crammed into a very short deadline. Thanks to the fundraiser by Pete Seeger, Ani DeFranco and others, Ulrich has been paid to date, but his testimony will be required to support the WestCAN contentions.
During the initial proceedings it seemed like NRC lawyers were acting as co-counsel with Entergy to find reasons to strike our contentions and keep them for going to a hearing. On one occasion we were required to resubmit seven copies of a thousand pages of testimony because the page number for one exhibit was slightly off. So far our contentions have survived and we will be allowed to appear before the Atomic Safety Licensing Board.
Those who have filed contentions are invited to appear before the board on March 10th as the first step in the process. The meeting is open to the public but only those who have submitted contentions can speak. It would be meaningful to have community support. If you are free during the day, please hold the date. Details and directions will be posted shortly.
Whatever contentions are left standing after the initial arguments will go to the hearing next summer. After the hearing, an appeal is possible to the Chairman of the NRC. It is not hard to predict the outcome of his decision. After that, appeals go to the Appellate Court. Expect a court case at the end of the appeals process no matter what the decision is. It is clear that it will take an act of Congress before for this flawed process can address public health and safety. Here's what you can do.
Donate money to WestCAN! We need to continue to pay our expert witness Ulrich Witte. Copying costs are enormous. The last bill was $800. We are a 501c3 non-profit organization and your donation is tax deductible. Make your check out to WestCAN and mail it to 2A Adrian Court, Cortlandt Manor, NY, 10567.
We really need a volunteer to help us set up a site for on line donations. Contact Marilyn if you can work on this.
Pick up the phone and talk to your local elected officials and Federal representatives to express your concerns. Keep this issue on the front burner.
Write a letter to Gov. Spitzer. If you voted for him because of his stance on Indian Point, tell him so. Make sure he understands your pressing need to see the plant closed.
Arrange a meeting and call Westchester Citizens Awareness Network for a speaker. One of the most pressing questions to address is "How do we replace the energy that is generated at Indian Point?" This question can be answered.
For more information call 914-954-6739 or email ElieWestCAN@gmail.com
Marilyn Elie, Margo Schepart and Mark Jacobs
are co- founders of Westchester Citizens Awareness Network,
a grassroots group that has opposed the plant for over a decade.
WestCAN is a member of the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition
GE Energy goes green with pan-Euro strategy - PRWeek UK
GE Plans European Greenwashing Blitz
Source: PR Week, February 28, 2008
General Electric's power industry division, GE Energy, is set to launch a greenwashing blitz in five European countries, including the United Kingdom. The centerpiece of the campaign will, according to PR Week, be an "aggressive green strategy" including the promotion of new GE technologies "including its Arklow Bank wind turbine park off the Irish coast." The campaign will be run by the Paris-based Hopscotch and its Irish subsidiary, Hopscotch Europe in One. Patrick Frison-Roche, the Managing Director of Hopscotch Europe in One, stated that "the company is still perceived as a large US corporation, so what we are doing here is ensuring stakeholders, influencers and other audiences are clear about its importance in Europe." In May 2005 GE launched its Ecomagination campaign, under which it is seeking to portray itself as an environmental leader. In the UK, GE Energy has been lobbying the UK government for an expansion of the nuclear power industry.
Press Review: "RIVERBANKS AND COASTLINES HAVE HIGHEST CANCER RATES
Fresh water has higher concentrations of radionuclides than seawater because there is a greater dilution factor in seawater, and salts in seawater control uptake of radionuclides. It is clear that dilution is not the solution to pollution. Dumping radioactive contaminated materials into bodies of water has a boomerang effect. It is not long before the radiation is washing back up on riverbanks and shorelines. In fact, in the first cancer mapping survey in history (1850-60) in the Lake District of Britain, Alfred Haviland reported that the highest cancer rates (from natural background radiation) were along riverbanks and shorelines providing a strong environmental link to cancer before manmade radiation was introduced into the environment after 1900. Pre-1900 cancer rates represent the true baseline for cancer studies."
Reuters AlertNet - NIGER: Uranium - blessing or curse?: As the global demand for nuclear energy rises, analysts say the large amount of uranium in Niger is not a benefit to the country's people but adds to the serious problems facing the region."Originally published "DAKAR, 10 October 2007 (IRIN)
Troubled Niger to earn more from uranium: "The changes come after a series of troubles for uranium concerns in Niger. In April, fighters from the Movement of Niger People for Justice (MNJ) attacked the Imouraren mine, operated by Areva, killing a guard. In early July the group held an executive from a Chinese-founded uranium prospecting company for several days."
FT.com / Home UK / UK - Nuclear study finds link to heart disease: "Nuclear study finds link to heart disease
By Clive Cookson, Science Editor
Published: March 5 2008 02:00 | Last updated: March 5 2008 02:00
A big study of nuclear workers has suggested an unexpectedly strong link between radiation exposure and heart disease.
The study, published yesterday, analysed health records and radiation doses for 65,000 people employed at four nuclear sites - Sellafield, Capenhurst and Springfields, in north-west England, and Chaplecross in south-west Scotland - between 1946 and 2005."
Nigeria approves technical framework for nuclear energy: "Nigeria's government has approved the technical framework for fast tracking the deployment of nuclear power plants for electricity generation in the country. However, the country is said to lack the regulatory framework and trained workers needed for such a programme."
Colombia says FARC wanted to make radioactive bomb
| Top News
| Reuters: "GENEVA (Reuters) - Colombia said on Tuesday that FARC rebels had been planning to make a 'dirty bomb' with radioactive material, threatening the entire Latin American region."
VOA News - Bush Says US Must 'Get Off Oil,' Calls for More Nuclear Power: "President Bush says America's search for alternative sources of fuel is a national security priority as well as an economic necessity. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports, Mr. Bush wants to expand the use of nuclear power in developing nations."
Ukranian News
- Security Council Declares Management System In Nuclear Energy Industry Unsatisfactory: "The National Security and Defense Council has declared the current system of management in the nuclear energy industry as well as the system of regulation of nuclear and radioactive safety issues in Ukraine unsatisfactory."
Chernobyl Children's Project International: lombard illinois students on "chernobyl heart" mission: "Hannah told me that she and her friends Jenna Kenny and Michele Graham went online to learned about the Chernobyl disaster and the work of Chernobyl Children's Project International.� They wanted to know what they could do to help kids their age affected by the disaster."
The State | 03/04/2008 | Group intervenes to stop Duke Energy's nuke reactor plans in SC: "Group intervenes to stop Duke Energy's nuke reactor plans in SC
By JIM DAVENPORT - Associated Press Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. --An environmental group has asked South Carolina regulators to halt Duke Energy's request to include planning costs for two new nuclear reactors in its rates.
Duke Energy Corp. told the South Carolina Public Service Commission in December that it has spent $70 million and expects to spend $160 million more on the project through December 2009. South Carolina ratepayers would pick up $64.4 million of the pre-construction costs for the Cherokee County project in their power bills.
South Carolina Friends of the Earth contends nuclear power isn't safe, costs more than other energy alternatives and there is no solution for handling the waste generated."
France and South Africa sign nuclear skills agreements
Currently South Africa has two pressurized water reactors at Koeberg, operated by state utility Eskom to provide about 6% of its electricity. Almost all of the rest of the country's electricity comes from coal-fired stations. Plans are already afoot in the country to deploy around 12 more power reactors of around 1000 MWe, and to build 20-30 of the 165 MWe PBMR units following the successful operation of a demonstration unit. That level of deployment would provide 30% of South Africa's electricity.
European energy plan silently supports nuclear: "The Council of the European Union�has approved the�European Strategic Energy Technology Plan,�which proposes research into nuclear energy, without mentioning nuclear energy in their approval document.
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Respirex
Spring Fashion in and around nuclear power plants.
Ahead of the Bell:Nuclear Plant Security: "WASHINGTON
Representatives from the companies and agencies involved in last year's high-profile case of security guards caught nodding off at a nuclear power plant will be on Capitol Hill Thursday.
Congressional members and officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Exelon Corp. and Wackenhut, the guards' employer, will examine security and government oversight at a Senate subcommittee hearing scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EST.
After guards at the Peach Bottom plant in Pennsylvania were found to be sleeping on the job, Chicago-based utility Exelon Corp. said Wackenhut would be out of its 10 nuclear plants by July, and an in-house security force would take over. Officials from Wackenhut, a subsidiary of British based security giant G4S PLC, have called the guards' behavior an 'anomaly.'
Since the Peach Bottom incident, the NRC has asked commercial nuclear power plant operators for more information about their security. The agency in October confirmed guards at the plant had been sleeping on the job, but all parties have said reviews showed the plant's security was never in jeopardy.
Pennsylvania Sens. Robert Casey and Arlen Specter are expected to testify before the Senate subcommittee on clean air and nuclear safety, along with NRC Chairman Dale Klein, and executives from both Exelon and G4S Regulated Security Solutions."
Will U.S. become world's nuclear-waste dump? | csmonitor.com: "The federal government is weighing a Utah company's request to import large amounts of low-level radioactive waste from Italy – a step critics say could lead the United States to become a nuclear garbage dump for the world."
The Associated Press: Questions Linger in Florida BlackoutWEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Utility company investigators will likely look beyond a substation fire to determine the cause of a recent blackout that left as many as 3 million Floridians without power, energy experts say.
Florida Power & Light officials said Wednesday they are uncertain how long it will take to learn why a small fire
France prépare with the conséquences of an accident of the Tchernobyl type on its ground the WORLD | 20.02.08 | 12h23 Put • à day 20.02.08 | 12h31 thirty years rès après the accident nucléaire of Three Mile Island (the United States, 1979), more than twenty après the explosion of the réactor nº4 of Tchernobyl (Ukraine, 1986), France faces a taboo. It outlines "doctrines" in order to préparer à gérer the conséquences of a catastrophe nucléaire on its ground. In the next days, the Prime Minister will be recipient of a letter of directing Comité for the management of the post-accidental phase of a situation urgently radiological (Codirpa) présentant éléments of réflexion likely to found these doctrines. This mail is the fruit of work carried out by Autorité of sÃ"reté nucléaire (ASN) in bond with services and agencies of the State, the opérateurs nucléaires and certain associative actors, à the continuation of a interministérielle directive of April 2005. It témoigne of a radical change in the façon whose autorités consider the aléa nucléaire. During décennies, they are montrées obsédées by the sÃ"reté, insistent on the mécanisms of défense and of the statistics reassuring, the accident having only one chance on a million to occur, ensured one fréquemment. They are placed désormais from the point of view où it would occur indeed, with environmental and medical conséquences of means and long term. "Until à présent, the texts géraient the emergency phase of an accident, until à the end of the radioactive rejections, which gives per annum place à ten exercises, témoigne Jean-Luc Lachaume, director général assistant of the ASN. The post-accidental one, it is to explore what occurs then: how to return à a livable situation, if as well is as it is it, in the zones touchées." To project itself in this situation, Codirpa has imaginé two scénarios †"rupture of tube of vapor générator, fusion partial of the cÅ"ur of the réactor †"including/understanding rejections respectively of an hour and a journée. Is it or not necessary to authorize the return of the populations in the territories contaminés, and so yes à which échéance? How to organize their medical follow-up, gérer déchets, to dimension the compensations? A mass of interrogations is née of these exercises spéculatifs, led in working groups spécialisés. In décembre 2007, a séminaire allowed synthétiser these contributions, and to measure the way which remains à to traverse. For example, "the méthodology remains à to définir on the évaluation of the amount reçue by the population, notes Mr. Lachaume. It is necessary to introduce a scientific débat, à cold, on this point controversé." Concrètement: décontaminer the houses with the jet, to prévenir the incrustation of the radionucléides, won't it induce pollution in the réseaux ones of water? In would the agricultural zones, be necessary to harvest to concentrate the radioactivité and of débarrasser, or to seek its dilution? In 2008, Codirpa will begin à to give instructions to the préfets, to organize new exercises of crisis to test the ébauche de"doctrine", to engage of the discussions with the mediums associative, éducatif, médical and médiatic. Isn't it inquiétant of être still in the medium of the gué? "One knows well gérer the première accidental phase, ensures Jean-Luc Lachaume. One would be able to réagir well in the event of longer crisis." "One can modéliser, to calculate; from all façon, nothing will occur like prévu ", estimates Monique Sené, of the Grouping of the scientists for information on the énergie nucléaire, which took share with work of Codirpa. The physician greets the effort of the State to fill her gaps, but estimates that one of the priorités consists à to associate the population. Fine expert of the situation in Ukraine and Biélorussie, touchées with the first chief by the radiological cloud of Tchernobyl, Jean-Claude Autret, of Association for the contrÃ' it of the radioactivité in the West, has to him also participé in Codirpa. "One works on accidents très minorés by report/ratio à Tchernobyl, reassuring for the autorités", regrets it, noting that the field of research is "énorme". He félicite however of the change of mentalité within the ASN, so much "he is hard of appréhender the sacrifice of a territory for several siècles, even of the millénaires". Hervé Morin
TRANSLATE IT ALL ON BABEL TRANSLATION -SIDE BAR CLAM POST-
BELLACIAO - Les "autorit�s" se pr�parent "militairement" �un accident nucl�aire en France - Infonucl�aire
France getting ready for a nuclear accident- Chernobyl type....but small !
in french here - lots of great link on what's going on...
Vermont Yankee clears key hurdle on license extension - BostonHerald.com: "MONTPELIER, Vt. - The staff of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Monday gave its blessing to the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant’s request to extend its license for 20 years beyond its currently scheduled 2012 expiration date.
In a safety evaluation report, the regulators said the plant’s operators had satisfied the requirements of federal law."
The Free Press -- Independent News Media - Harvey Wasserman: "
February 27, 2008 click title for full text !
As many as two million Floridians were blacked out yesterday by a series of grid malfunctions that forced shut two old atomic reactors south of Miami and renewed nightmares of a radioactive catastrophe. The chain of events should serve as yet another serious warning to those who would build still more atomic reactors in Florida and elsewhere."
HOW SWING STATE OHIO GOT NUKED
By Harvey Wasserman
Ohio is poised to do its thing as the ultimate swing state. On March 4 it may, along with Texas, choose the Democratic presidential nominee.
Tragically, the candidates will campaign in a state whose economic future has been nuked.
Once a great industrial heartland, Ohio’s rust belt status has been solidified by billions in excess electric rates driven by four nuclear reactors, and by the state government's inability to make way for a green-powered future.
On Friday, February 22, a powerful group of international steel investors announced they were pulling Ohio out of the running for a new high-tech production plant. Some 500 jobs will now go elsewhere. The investors blamed unstable power prices. "If you had to rank from clarity on the utility situation, Ohio would not rank very high," said one.
The state suffers some of the nation's highest and most unpredictable electric costs for four simple reasons: the Davis-Besse, Perry, Zimmer and Beaver Valley 2 nuclear plants.
Davis-Besse, near Toledo, is world-famous for a leak of boric acid that ate through a six-inch stainless steel reactor pressure vessel, bringing northern Ohio to the brink of a Chernobyl-scale catastrophe. Perry, east of Cleveland, suffered billions in construction cost over-runs, and is the only US nuke to have been damaged by an earthquake. Zimmer, on the Ohio River, was allegedly more than 95% complete when massive design and construction flaws forced its hugely expensive 1980s conversion to coal. Beaver Valley 2, near Pittsburgh, has run up even more in overages.
To recoup their radioactive losses, Ohio utilities rammed a 1999 “deregulation” bill through the legislature that has thus far cost ratepayers at least $10 billion, and counting. The vast bulk of the money has gone to repay “stranded costs,” corporate code for sunk debt reactor owners don't want to eat. Had that money gone to increased efficiency and renewable technologies, Ohio’s economy would be on a very different footing.
The bill was largely guided by the Akron-based FirstEnergy, whose Anthony Alexander has been a major Bush-Cheney donor. FirstEnergy makes very large campaign donations, mostly to Republican legislators in Ohio and nationwide. Forbes Magazine estimated Alexander's 2005 salary at more than $6 million.
As part of the dereg scam, the utilities promised an “open market” for electricity once the nukes were paid off. But instead of competition, Ohio is getting unregulated monopolies that are neither clean nor reliable. It was FirstEnergy's shaky grid that helped black out 50 million people in the northeastern US and Canada in 2003. Small wonder investors are skittish.
A much-touted energy bill passed by the state Senate in October mandates that Ohio utilities generate 25% of their electricity with "advanced energy" by 2020.
About two dozen other states have similar provisions. But Ohio's has become a national joke by including “clean coal” and nuke power in the mix. The Senate bill says half of that quota---12.5%--- must come from renewables such as wind, solar and bio-fuels. But the other 12.5% can come from still more nuke and fossil fuels.
Because of this and disputes over regulation, the bill has languished in the Ohio House. Republican Speaker Jon Husted is reportedly considering removing the coal/nuke concession. But Democratic Governor Ted Strickland has long-standing ties to the coal and uranium enrichment industries, which are deeply rooted in his native southern Ohio.
In the meantime, electric prices and green energy are in deep in limbo, and have dragged down any hope of an economic revival. Except for municipal utilities like Cleveland and Bowling Green, northern Ohio endures some of the nation’s highest electric rates.
The region does not lack green visionaries---or resources. Bowling Green owns four extremely successful wind turbines, and may build more. The Cleveland Foundation and others are pushing hard for a renewable energy infrastructure along the lakefront to manufacture wind turbines, solar panels and fuel cells. The Museum of Science hosts the only utility-scale windmill in a US downtown.
The Great Lakes region boasts some of the world's most powerful wind resources. But a sustainable green harvest must somehow blow by Ohio's continued corporate commitment to nuke power.
The Senators campaigning here for the presidency had best look closely at the $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees for new reactor construction that were written into the Congressional Appropriations Bill passed in 2007. They might also do something about the Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Bill, soon to be debated on the Senate floor, which may contain significant handouts to build still more atomic reactors.
Above all, as the campaign rolls through swing state Ohio, those who would be president should make note of what a mess nuke power has made of this state's economy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harvey Wasserman is author of SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH (www.solartopia.org).
Nuclear Power in China: "Mainland China has eleven nuclear power reactors in commercial operation,
Nuclear Agency Confronts Iran With Evidence on Weapons - New York TimesWASHINGTON — The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that it had confronted Iran for the first time with evidence supplied by the United States and other countries that strongly suggested the country had experimented with technology to make a nuclear weapon, but that Iranian officials dismissed the documents obtained from an Iranian scientist as “baseless and fabricated.”
Nuclear Agency Confronts Iran With Evidence on Weapons - New York TimesWASHINGTON — The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that it had confronted Iran for the first time with evidence supplied by the United States and other countries that strongly suggested the country had experimented with technology to make a nuclear weapon, but that Iranian officials dismissed the documents obtained from an Iranian scientist as “baseless and fabricated.”
click on title for full text
DRAFT FOR SIGN ON BY FRIDAY FEB 22 dianed@nirs.org 301 270 6477 x 16
Office of the Secretary
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555
February 22, 2008 ??
Dear Office of the Secretary,
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is currently considering applications (Nos. IW023 and XW013, Federal Register Volume 73, Number 28, 2/11/08) from EnergySolutions for import/export licenses that would bring 20,000 tons, 1 million cubic feet, 600,000,000,000,000 becquerels of radioactive waste (mainly from Italian nuclear power and related industries) into the US for processing including incineration, transport and disposal.
Our organizations request a 90-day extension on the time period to request a hearing or petition for leave to intervene and for public comment.
In terms of volume, the application appears to allow close to all of the Italian “low and intermediate” level nuclear waste inventory to be brought to the US through US ports, on US roads, rails and/or waterways for processing in Tennessee and dumping either in Tennessee or at the licensed nuclear dump in Utah.
The activities of the nuclear waste processors in Tennessee, including EnergySolutions, which release some nuclear waste into regular solid waste trash dumps and into recycling streams, currently are being questioned and challenged in that state.
Importing such massive amounts of nuclear waste for transport and processing could affect the ability to manage our own country’s growing amounts nuclear waste.
Because of the
àunprecedented large amounts of waste and radioactivity involved,
àpotential impact on ports, transport routes, communities with processors and those downwind and downstream;
àincreased potential for radioactive materials deregulated via EnergySolutions to get into commerce or unregulated waste facilities;
ànewness of the information to many potentially affected parties and communities;
àpotentially disproportionate impact on communities of color and low income communities in several of the directly affected states,
we call for an extension on the comment, hearing and intervention request period for the EnergySolutions import/export licenses for Italian nuclear waste.
Sincerely
Diane D’Arrigo
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Green Markets and a Green Rule: Roy Morrison. 2/22/08
My son Sam's 15. He’s on the freshman basketball team, soon to get his learner’s
permit. I'm free with advice. Drive to the hoop. Don't stop on the tracks.
Following your parents’ and teachers’ advice generally serves us well as guide
to an ethical and successful life. What we need to know, we learned in
kindergarten.
Share toys. Don't hit. Be kind. Don't lie. Follow the Golden rule: Do onto
others as others will do onto you.
We are the richest, most powerful nation in history. Our churches, synagogues,
and now mosques are packed. My son was taught the Jewish sage Hillel's
injunction: “That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is
the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."
Yet somehow, as the climate changes and the earth warms, following a Golden rule
is not enough.
The U.S. has the strongest environmental laws and is also the largest polluter.
We have reached the climate tipping pain, not by back alley dumping and illegal
power plants, but by being in compliance with CAFE standards, the Clean Air and
Clean Water acts the Endangered Species Act et. al.
Building our dazzling civilization, model for the aspiring millions attempting
to follow in our footsteps, we simply have not taken full account of the
consequences of our actions upon the ecosphere. The free market that guides us
sends us incomplete price signals. The costs of pollution, depletion and
ecological damage are often not included in the price. They are externalized,
as economists say. That means the costs are shifted to people downwind and to
future generations. The cure is not revolution, or a bureaucrat writing rules.
If we get the prices right and have to charge true costs, the market will do its
job and be sustainable. What's polluting will cost more and decrease profit.
What's not polluting will cost less and increase profit. What’s sustainable will
be cheaper. What’s polluting will be more expensive.
Economic growth must mean ecological improvement, not ecological destruction.
This is the business and ethical imperative for the 21st century.
For business the solution is clear: tax pollution, depletion, and ecological
damage not income. Ecological consumption taxes, such as a carbon tax or an
ecological value added tax, a smart sales tax, should be phased in quickly to
replace income taxes.
And the business imperative must be supported by an ethical imperative as guide
to behavior.
Ethically we must learn a new Golden rule, a Green rule: Do onto the earth as
the earth will do onto us. This is the rule of karma and consequence, what goes
around comes around, applied to the 21st century. We need to practice a Green
rule as the basis for a new common sense and sustainable market rules.
Green ethics and a green market go together like hand in glove. Together they
are what we need to guide our choices in our democracy and entrepreneurial
economy.
A Green Rule: Do onto the earth as the earth will do onto us, is not the
imposition of a foreign doctrine. It is a statement affirming both freedom, and
community, rooted in our right to choose.
Look at the back of a dollar bill in your wallet. The eagle on the Great Seal of
the United States holds a ribbon in its mouth with the inscription: E Pluribus
Unum, From many, one.
We are one people on one earth. By the practice of our freedom and community
our industrial democracy can and will become a sustainable ecological democracy.
____________________________
Roy Morrison is Director of the Office for Sustainability at Southern New
Hampshire University. His book on ecological taxation Markets, Democracy &
Survival is available for download at www.RMAenergy.net.
Fact check:
Rabbi Hillel and golden Rule: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
“Once there was a gentile who came before Shammai, and said to him: "Convert me
on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.
Shammai pushed him aside with the measuring stick he was holding. The same
fellow came before Hillel, and Hillel converted him, saying: That which is
despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the
rest is commentary, go and learn it."
________________________________________
Rabbi Hillel was one of the most influential scholars in Jewish history.
Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a
--
Roy Morrison & Associates, LLC
Eco Power Hedge, LLC
www.RMAenergy.net
www.EcoPowerHedge.com
603-496-4260
1-888-436-7176(fax)
P.O. Box 201, Warner, NH 03278
IEER | Campaign to Include Women, Children, and Future Generations in Environmental Health Standards: "Dear President Bush:
We are writing to call your attention to a serious problem in public health protection and ask that you take action to fix it.
Presently, many federal radiation protection standards are based on average lifetime exposure or on 'Reference Man,' a hypothetical adult 'Caucasian' male who is 20 to 30 years old, weighs 154 pounds, is five feet seven inches tall, and is 'Western European or North American in habitat and custom.' Reference Man is widely used to set federal rules and regulations, for instance, limits on how much residual radiation will be allowed in radioactively contaminated soil."
The Power to Say No - New York Times: "In recent weeks, the federal Forest Service awarded a British company the right to explore for uranium on 39 separate sites on national forest land just outside Grand Canyon National Park, less than three miles from a popular lookout over the canyon’s southern rim."
Russian power giants join forces: "A new joint venture should see Russia's specialist nuclear power exporter join forces with its major conventional power plant constructor.
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Award for beautiful waste facility: "Award for beautiful waste facility
12 February 2008
The�artistic concept of the Habog facility has won operators Covra the PIME Award for communication in the nuclear industry. Its theme of gaining value from decay was developed by the artist William Verstraeten.
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Residents relied on TV for earthquake details: "Residents relied on TV for earthquake details
20 February 2008
Almost everyone in the Tokyo region of Japan relied on television for information about the July 2007 earthquake and its effects on the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, a survey has found."
Nuclear regulators urged to revamp licensing oversight - The Boston Globe: "Nuclear regulators urged to revamp licensing oversight
State officials call audit 'disturbing'
Email|Print| Text size – By Steve LeBlanc
Associated Press / February 19, 2008
Top state officials, pointing to what they say is a troubling internal audit, are urging federal nuclear plant regulators to revamp their oversight of the licensing process before moving ahead with several pending renewals, including one at a Plymouth plant."
