HELP STOP $50 BILLION FOR NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS!

10/17/07

HELP STOP $50 BILLION FOR NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS!

October 17, 2007

HELP STOP $50 BILLION FOR NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS!

SUPPORT MUSICIANS AND OTHERS WORKING TO STOP AN ATOMIC BAILOUT!

NATIONAL CALL-CONGRESS DAY: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2007

Plus: Sign-On Letter, New Factsheets, Read on…..

Dear Friends:

It’s time to make our most visible statement yet to stop some $50 Billion in taxpayer loan guarantees for construction of new atomic reactors—loans that even the Congressional Budget Office says will have a 50% failure rate.

Support the Musicians! National Call-Congress Day: On Tuesday, October 23, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash and others are coming to Washington, DC to bring added attention to this issue and to talk to Congressional leaders. Their message will be: no taxpayer bailouts for the nuclear power industry.

We hope you’ll support their efforts by calling your own Congressmembers on Tuesday, October 23, and asking your friends and colleagues to call as well. Let’s keep the halls of Capitol Hill buzzing next Tuesday—with personal visits and thousands of ringing phones!

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.

People sometimes ask why we don’t just set up simple ways for you to send an e-mail to your legislators. There are two answers: 1) such systems are actually pretty expensive; 2) more importantly, phone calls are far more effective than e-mails, which mostly go unread in Congressional offices because of the huge volume they receive.

NEW FACT SHEETS: The broad coalition working to stop the loan guarantees has prepared five new fact sheets on various aspects of this issue. They are available on the front page of NIRS’ website, www.nirs.org. Educate yourself, educate your media, educate your Congressmembers.

SIGN-ON LETTER: Below is a sign-on letter prepared by the Sustainable Energy Network. This letter is for ORGANIZATIONS ONLY. If your organization can sign, please send your name, organization, city and state to sustainable-energy-network@hotmail.com by close-of-business October 23. Please do not send to NIRS. Individuals: if you haven’t already, please sign the petition on loan guarantees at www.nukefree.org.

October 24, 2007

PLEASE OPPOSE LOAN GUARANTEES TO THE NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY

Members, U.S. Senate
Members, U.S. House of Representatives
United States Congress
Washington, D.C.

Dear Senator/Representative:

We, the undersigned organizations, businesses, and individual activists, are writing to urge that any energy legislation considered by the 110th Congress not include provisions authorizing or otherwise facilitating loan guarantees for the commercial nuclear power industry.

The Senate-passed energy bill (H.R.6) and the House-passed energy bill
(H.R.3221) both contain sweeping provisions that would dramatically alter the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee Program and potentially provide a virtual blank check from taxpayers for the building of many more nuclear power plants. Indeed, the nuclear industry has already indicated that it wants $25 billion in guarantees for 2008, and another $25 billion for 2009, with untold billions more to come after that.

The industry wants these subsidies because after fifty years, atomic power has been rejected by the marketplace. In fact, Wall Street will not independently invest in more of them, and still no private insurance company will underwrite the possibility of a major reactor disaster. This is not surprising given the industry's dubious safety record, high economic costs and overruns, and inability to solve the problem of radioactive waste disposal. Consequently, additional federal funding directed towards the mature nuclear power industry would be both extremely risky and wasteful.

More importantly, nuclear power has been left behind by a revolution in safer, cleaner, and more cost-effective renewable energy and energy efficient technologies. Biofuels, geothermal, solar, water power, and wind have become the world's fastest-growing energy technologies and have positioned themselves as the best solutions to global warming, rising energy costs, and energy imports.

Nuclear reactor loan guarantees therefore would siphon away limited federal dollars better spent on truly competitive sources of power.

Consequently, we ask that any nuclear loan guarantee provisions be removed from any energy bill considered by Congress and that any type of federal energy loan guarantee programs be designed solely to support promising sustainable energy technologies.

Sincerely,

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Ten Reasons To Say No To Nuclear Power

1. Climate change is underway. Renewable energy can be brought online faster, more cheaply and more safely than nuclear power. 2. Reactors are sitting-duck targets and are not even defended to the ferocity of the 9/11 attacks. 3. Nuclear power is not emissions-free. Reactors routinely release radioactivity and use fossil fuels at every step from uranium mining to waste storage. 4. Building more reactors in the U.S. sends the wrong message abroad. Commercial nuclear technology inevitably leads to nuclear weapons capability. 5. The Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive dump is unsound and even if opened could not accommodate all wastes if generation continues. 6. Evacuation plans are unrealistic. Hurricane Katrina taught us that a mass evacuation during a serious radiological release would be a chaotic catastrophe. 7. A typical 1000 megawatt nuclear reactor produces enough plutonium each year to make 40 atomic bombs, an unacceptable risk. 8. New and old reactors are most prone to break down. U.S. reactors are old. New ones increase the risk of accident. 9. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission—mandated to watchdog the nuclear industry – chooses to protect industry profit over public health and safety. 10. The most defenseless are at the greatest risk—children, the elderly, minorities, the poor and animals—at every phase of the nuclear fuel chain. Ten Brighter Ideas 1. If every U.S. household installed one compact fluorescent light bulb, the power savings would equal the power produced by one nuclear reactor. 1=1! 2. Twenty compact fluorescents in every U.S. home could displace at least 25% of U.S. nuclear reactors. 3. Updated lighting, appliances, heating, cooling and other electrical systems can save more energy than all 103 U.S. reactors produce annually. 4. Cost-effective energy efficiency measures for homes and businesses can save at least 20% of electricity use. 5. Turning off and unplugging electrical equipment not in use and line-drying clothes seem like small measures but can make a big difference. 6. Homeowners and renters alike can choose to buy green power instead of nuclear generated electricity. 7. Properly sealing and insulating your home can save 25%-40% of building heat loss. 8. Renewable energy sources can meet 25% of U.S. energy needs by 2025. 9. Shifting to locally-generated electricity avoids waste, reduces brownouts and blackouts, increases efficiency of service and creates jobs. 10. Every dollar spent on nuclear power instead of fossil fuels results in releasing six times more carbon than if the same dollar is spent on efficiency. www.nirs.org 301.270.6477

"The No Nuker" - where No Nukes is good news !

10/17/07