From AP: A federal appeals court has ordered the immediate release of an 85-year-old nun and two fellow Catholic peace activists who vandalized a uranium storage bunker, their attorney said Friday.
The order came after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court o…
Category Archives: News
NBC 5 investigative reporter Chris Coffey has looked at the Disaster Accountability Project’s findings and applied them to Exelon’s atomic reactors in Illinois. Major gaps are apparent, especially in the 10- to 50-mile zones around atomic reactors.
The…
A transformer fire that has shuttered the Indian Point nuclear power plant 30 miles from New York City has also left its own ugly carbon footprint — an oil slick on the Hudson River. The fire caused a shutdown of the nuclear plant which could remain c…
Continue readingLogo courtesy of Public Citizen’s Energy ProgramBeyond Nuclear stood in solidarity with Advisory Neighborhood Council representatives from almost all the wards in the city, as well as three City Council members, who spoke out at a press conference on t…
Continue readingThom Hartmann, host of “The Big Picture”Thom Hartmann, host of “The Big Picture,” had Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps on to discuss the transformer fires at Entergy Nuclear’s Indian Point nuclear power plant, and consequent oil spill into the Hudson River…
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| SAVE TRESTLES! |
The California Coastal Commission meeting on changing the San Onofre spent fuel pool cooling system is still scheduled for Santa Barbara on May 14th.
Please request the Coastal Commission to change it to the Newport Beach meeting.
The Coastal Commission needs to hear from more of you.
They are getting pressure from Edison to speed up yet another experiment in nuclear waste dump managment.
Send request for meeting change to joseph.street@coastal.ca.gov
Subject: Request to move Southern California Edison San Onofre agenda items to Newport Beach meeting
These waivers are for major changes to the San Onofre spent fuel cooling systems, air cooling systems and the ocean discharge systems. These are very significant issues.
Please move the decision on the Southern California Edison Coastal Development Permit Waivers (9-15-0417-W and 9-15-0162-W) from the May 14 Santa Barbara meeting to the June Newport Beach meeting.
It will take over 4 hours to drive to Santa Barbara from San Diego and over 3 hours from South Orange county. Given the length of time and starting time of the meeting, this is an undue hardship for the people most impacted by these decisions. There doesn’t appear to be any significant reason or legal deadline to justify this hardship.
The Coastal Commission website states:
The Commission meets once a month in different locations of the State in order to facilitate public participation. Staff attempts, whenever possible, to schedule matters for hearings that will be relatively close to the location of a proposed development. However, legal deadlines for action may require that the hearing on an item take place in a different area than the proposed project.
We don’t know which day in June the waivers will be addressed. They do not list them on the agenda. I do know they will be under the section labeled as:
ENERGY, OCEAN RESOURCES and FEDERAL CONSISTENCY.
Report by the Deputy Director on permit waivers, emergency permits, immaterial amendments & extensions, negative determinations, matters not requiring public hearings, and status report on offshore oil & gas exploration & development. For specific information contact the Commission’s Energy, Ocean Resources, and Federal Consistency Division office at (415) 904-5240.
Even if you don’t plan to speak at the meeting, we need you to show up or at least write for the delay of the meeting. The Coastal Commission is our friend, but not if we don’t express an interest.
Here’s the link to meeting rules.
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/mtgcurr.html#meetingRules
It doesn’t appear the chillers Edison proposes are “nuclear grade chillers”. The Coastal Commission was told they are “commercial grade chillers”. And as usual, the NRC is not doing their job. They don’t plan to inspect until after the new systems are installed, so we cannot count of them to even review this new method of cooling spent fuel pools filled with hot fuel that can boil the water out, if the pools are not kept cool.
Using water chillers to cool spent pools appears to be another Edison experiment. In fact, We have found only one that used chillers and it had fuel that didn’t need cooling. Edison told the Coastal Commission that “chillers are commonly used in commercial industries” and that “spent fuel pool islands” have been used at nuclear plants. However, these misleading statements don’t mean that chillers are used for spent fuel pool island cooling. We have asked both the NRC and Edison to provide me a list of nuclear spent fuel pools cooled with chillers. We do not have a response from either of them, even though we have requested this at the last CEP meeting. We’ve followed up with Edison via email, but do not have a response yet.
Here’s a document that talks about methods of cooling spent fuel pools as well as how to save water use at nuclear plants. It does not list water chillers for cooling spent fuel pools, even for decommissioned plants. It even has information about Diablo Canyon and Palo Verde cooling systems and water use.
IAEA Technical Reports: Efficient Water Management in Water Cooled Reactors, No. NP-T-2.6, November 5, 2012
Aging Nuke Dumps On Fault Lines In Tsunami Hazard Zones = Fukushimas… Any Questions?
PLEASE Turn off a light for Fukushima USA / San Onofre
PLEASE Turn off a light for Fukushima USA / San Onofre
Oil sheen seen in the Hudson River near Indian Point nuclear plant following a transformer fire on May 11, 2015 (Credit: Riverkeeper)As reported by CBS New York, a transformer fire took place at Entergy Nuclear’s Indian Point Unit 3 (IP) yesterday. New…
Continue readingA diagram describing pressurized thermal shock in a nuclear reactor. Credit: Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Japan’s worst embrittled RPV, at Genkai 1, has been permanently closed in the aftermath of Fukushima.A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) …
Continue readingThe Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision in favor of the Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed (pictured) who were convicted in 2013 of sabotage for their July 28, 2012 Transform Now Plowshares protest of nuclear weapons prod…
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| Calling All San Onofre Surfers |
While many of us have been busy focusing on the host of problems we face because of San Onofre, there is one very important issue we are neglecting: the immanent pending decision of the NRC on whether to fund the Natioinal Academy of Sciences (NAS) cancer streak study in this area. The NAS sent their Phase 2 proposal to the NRC back in January and the NRC is dragging its feet on whether to approve it. Many think that the NRC does not want this study done because of the possibility of revealing that the radioactive releases Edison has been doing into the ocean and into our atmosphere for the last half century may have a significant toll on our health.
The NAS study will focus particularly on women and children who are the most vulnerable. If you have lived within 31 miles (50 km) of the plant and had children since the 1980s, you will be part of the study. As you know, nuclear power plants are known emitters of beta and gamma radiation which can easily penetrate your home and your body and rearrange cell DNA which might result in cancer after years or decades of exposure.
There is Congressional oversight on this, but the NRC has played down this investigation and more public pressure is needed to get this study funded. Even though San Onofre is “closed,” we know that considerable emissions will continue to take place during the coming decades of decommissioning. They will continue to be discharging up to 36 radionuclides into the giant 18 ft pipes into the ocean (at a rate up to a million gallons per minutes with some discharges lasting 25 hours). Since 1990, the NRC has relied totally on an old and now discredited study by the National Cancer Institute which performed a heavily flawed study that failed to find a cancer effect. The NRC and the nuclear industry like this study and they routinely (and mistakenly) say it proves that radiation is harmless to people living near NPP.
There are two key people in Congress who are actively concerned about this. They are in a position to put pressure on the NRC to fund the study. They are our own Sen. Boxer and Massachusetts Senator Markey. Please write to both of them, perhaps both a written letter and an email (and call them). It is not necessary to sound like a nuclear physicist and cite the details. Just express your concern as a resident, and ask them to please contact the NRC and help get this study funded.
Many thanks!
Roger Johnson
Senator Barbara Boxer
312 N. Spring St., Suite #1748
Los Angeles, CA 90012 213-894-5000
Senator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3553
Senator Edward Markey
255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510 202-224-2742
Senator Edward Markey
975 JFK Federal Building
15 New Sudbury Street
Boston, MA 02203 Phone: 617-565-8519
Also copy: sarah_butler@markey.senate.gov and Michal_Freedhoff@market.senate.gov (she is a director of policy)
Link to Analysis of Cancer Risks Among Populations Near Nuclear Facilities Jan. 2015:
Aging Nuke Dumps On Fault Lines In Tsunami Hazard Zones = Fukushimas… Any Questions?
PLEASE Turn off a light for Fukushima USA / San Onofre
PLEASE Turn off a light for Fukushima USA / San Onofre
Photo taken in May 2013 during a protest organized by Beyond Nuclear at the front entrance of Palisades, which had just leaked 82.1 gallons of radioactive water into Lake Michigan. Marion Anderson of South Haven, a member of MSEF-Shoreline Chapter, cre…
Continue readingAs reported by Jeffrey Tomich in Midwest Energy News, the Illinois Attorney General’s office has blasted a bill that would bailout Exelon Nuclear at huge taxpayer expense as disruptive to the free market in electricity.
IL AG’s office spokeswoman Cara …
Arnie Gundersen speaking to an audience at Illinois Sierra Club, April 30, 2015 (photo credit: NEIS).As conveyed in a Nuclear Energy Information Service media release, and a Forbes blog by Jeff McMahon, the question posed by Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engi…
Continue readingSee Beyond Nuclear’s press release.
Also see Farouk D. Baxter PE’s warnings to ASLB about Fermi 3 transmission corridor risks.
“A coalition of conservation groups announced today they are appealing a lower court decision that opens the door to new uranium mining at the Canyon uranium mine, located only six miles from Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim.
Sierra C…
“Burning money” image by Gene Case/Avenging AngelsBoth the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times editorial boards have come out against Exelon Nuclear’s attempt to gouge Illinois ratepayers to the tune of hundreds of millions per year, to prop up…
Continue readingAs reported by Blake Farmer at Marketplace, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the largest public electric utility in the country, has canceled most of its “Nuclear Relapse” plans. Although the decades-under-construction Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennesse…
Continue readingTwenty nine years ago today, the world’s worst nuclear disaster at the time, happened in Ukraine close to the border with Belarus in what was still the Soviet Union. The Chernobyl reactor, just two years into operation, exploded, releasing large q…
Continue readingA drone carrying a plastic bottle with trace amounts of cesium has landed on the roof of Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s office, evidently sending a message about strong citizen opposition to a restart of that country’s nuclear power plants. Japan remain…
Continue readingIn an episode entitled “The Danger of Nuclear Escalation,” Margaret Harrington, host of “Nuclear-Free Future Conversation” on CCTV in Burlington, Vermont, interviewed Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps about the related risks of nuclear power and nuclear w…
Continue reading“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Socrates
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth‘s natural environment. Earth Day was founded by Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.It is celebrated in more than 175 countries.” Wikipedia reference
Just as we humans need to protect, nurture, and feed ourselves, we can offer to the planet, our Mother Earth, respect, protection, and nurturance. “Given the present rate of planetary pollution and destruction, we need to negotiate a detente with nature and ourselves.” Paul Hawken. There are many positive actions taking place all over the world. For instance, there are over six thousand different women’s groups in Africa planting trees and four thousand organizations in North America have adopted a river, creek, or stream. Organic agriculture is the fastest growing sector of farming in North America, Japan, Mexico and Europe. There are three thousand organizations that educate farmers, customers and legislators about sustainable and biological agriculture. The world is now understanding the need to move away from the dirty carbon based energies of the past 150 years into the clean and renewable energy future. Solar, wind and wave energy technologies are just a few of the bright stars this future will be based on.
Our indigenous first peoples of the Americas have given the long held wisdom that we should always be thinking of the next seven generations to come in our interactions with Mother Earth. It is said that we do not own the earth, we borrow it from our children. Many of us are just now coming to understand that the earth is taking care of us and not the other way around. Our actions have far reaching effects and consequences on our planet, climate, oceans and air. Droughts, flooding, super storms, melting of the glaciers and the ice caps in the north and south poles are just some indications of severe climate change.
“Great Spirit, whose dry lands thirst, help us to find the way to refresh your lands.
We pray for the power to refresh your lands.
Great Spirit, whose waters are choked with debris and pollution, help us to find the way to cleanse your waters.
We pray for your knowledge to find a way to cleanse the waters.
Great Spirit, whose beautiful earth grows ugly with misuse, help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.
We pray for your strength to restore the beauty of your handiwork.
Great Spirit, whose great creatures are being destroyed, help us to find a way to replenish them.
We pray for your power to replenish the earth.
Great Spirit, whose gifts to us are being lost in selfishness and corruption, help us to find the way to restore our humanity.
We pray for the wisdom to find the way to restore our humanity.” UN Environmental Sabbath Program
It was our honor yesterday to help the Cub Scouts of troop 714 of San Clemente Las Palmas school to plant eight California Laurel Bay trees for their Earth Day celebration in their new camping area at Oso Lake. This was the first experience planting trees for this troop. They worked hard digging the holes, preparing the soil and placing the trees in the ground. As we worked together, we had the opportunity to share the value of planting trees and how this action helps the future of the planet. The scouts were amazed to learn that trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. As the work continued, their understanding of the cycle of life deepened. As we finished placing the last tree in the ground, a red tail hawk flew directly over our heads making her voice known to all of us. It was clear that this sign was a good one and the spirit of the hawk was saying thank you.
How can we help to make Earth Day everyday? Here are some ideas:
Plant trees
Conserve water
Walk or ride your bike to school or work
Use public transportation
Recycle
Compost
Make your home energy efficient
To learn more visit the websites below:
http://www.wattlesswednesday.org/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/save-earth-top-ten.htm
http://www.plant-for-the-planet-billiontreecampaign.org/
Remember, on Earth Day and everyday, we are all part of the earth.
Love, Joyce and Gene
Aging Nuke Dumps On Fault Lines In Tsunami Hazard Zones = Fukushimas… Any Questions?
PLEASE Turn off a light for Fukushima USA / San Onofre
PLEASE Turn off a light for Fukushima USA / San Onofre
Entergy’s Palisades atomic reactor, located in Covert, MI on the Lake Michigan shoreOn April 19, a fund- and awareness-raiser, “Pull the Plug on Palisades for Earth Day,” was held at the Old Dog Tavern in downtown Kalamazoo, MI.
The e…
Such serious flaws have now been found in the French prototype EPR reactor still under construction at Flamanville in France (pictured) that the project may have to be scrapped. Authorities have found that the project has a faulty steel reactor vessel …
Continue readingBeyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps was interviewed by RT International regarding current developments at Fukushima Daiichi, Japan. The interview includes footage of the large mounds of radioactive waste being transferred to Okuma and Futaba, the two “host” t…
Continue readingThe Ginna atomic reactor, on the Lake Ontario shoreline in upstate New YorkAs reported by William Opalka in RTO Insider, “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday rejected the rate schedule proposed for a struggling nuclear power plant ne…
Continue readingWe are very sad to report that our dear friend and colleague, Bill Hirt, has passed on. He died surrounded by his loving family on Monday, March 30, 2015, more than eight years after being diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), more common…
Continue reading“Burning money” graphic art by Gene Case and Avenging Angels appeared on the cover of the Nation Magazine, accompanying an article about the nuclear relapse by Christian ParentiNuclear utilities, like Exelon of Chicago and FirstEnergy of Ohio, are seek…
Continue readingTwo op-eds published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer advocate that FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) should not be allowed to saddle Ohio ratepayers with a $3 billion surcharge over the next 15 years, a subsidy to keep two dirty, dangerous, a…
Continue readingHarvey Wasserman has written in commeration of the meltdown at Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit 2 on March 29, 1979. He writes:
“The lies that killed people at Three Mile Island 36 years ago tomorrow are still being told at Chernobyl, Fukushima, Diabl…
Logo courtesy of Public Citizen Energy ProgramAs reported by UtilityDIVE and Argus Media, the Maryland Public Service Commission (MD PSC) has given itself till May 8th to decide whether or not to approve the proposed $6.8 billion merger between Exel…
Continue readingTim Judson, Executive Director of NIRS. Photo courtesy of NIRS.As just announced by the University of the District of Columbia’s (UDC) David A. Clarke School of Law, two panels of experts will examine the question of whether or not the proposed purch…
Continue readingU.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of NevadaU.S. Senator Harry Reid (Democrat from Nevada, photo left) has announced he won’t seek re-election, and will retire 22 months from now. Reid, who has long served as either the U.S. Senate Majority or Mi…
Continue readingNRC file photo of Entergy Nuclear’s Palisades atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shore in Covert, MIAs reported by a press release, a coalition of environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear, today testified before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Com…
Continue readingSmith amidst the 2012 “Occupy METI” (Ministry for Economy, Trade, and Industry) anti-nuclear protests in Tokyo in 2012Heidi Hutner, Director of the Stony Brook University Sustainability Program, has honored Aileen Mioko Smith, Executive Director of Gre…
Continue readingNRC file photo of PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, on the Pacific Coast near San Luis Obispo, CAAs reported by David R. Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) …
Continue readingNRC file photo of Entergy Nuclear’s Palisades atomic reactor on the Lake Michigan shore in Covert, MIAs reported by a press release, a coalition of environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear, today testified before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commi…
Continue readingAn infrared photo showing the thermal heat of a German CASTOR cask filled with irradiated nuclear fuel being transported by rail to Gorleben. The high-level radioactivity, not the thermal heat, is the hazard to human health, safety, and the env…
Continue readingInvestigative journalist and Beyond Nuclear board member, Karl GrossmanMatt Wald, the New York Times’ decades-long nuclear power reporter, recently retired from the newspaper. The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the nuclear power industry’s lobbying an…
Continue readingEntergy’s problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, MI, on the Lake Michigan shoreline.A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) will hold an oral argument pre-hearing on Wednesday, March 25th beginni…
Continue readingLogo compliments of Public Citizen’s Energy ProgramThe two counties comprising Pepco’s residential customer base in Maryland — Montgomery and Prince George’s — have just agreed to the merger of the electric utilities Exelon and Pepco, according…
Continue readingDOE imageAs by reported by Joby Warrick in the Washington Post, the first such study by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in seven years predicts that easily a third of U.S. energy needs could be supplied by wind power by 2050.
The DOE report is e…
Thom Hartmann, host of “The Big Picture”On March 12, Thom Hartmann hosted Beyond Nuclear’s Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, on “The Big Picture” to discuss a massive leak of 750 tons (200,000 gallons) of highly radioactive rainwater at Fukushim…
Continue readingChiho Kaneko, Fairewinds Energy Education board member, along with Alfred Meyer of PSR’s national board, and Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps, in the Carbon-Free/Nuclear-Free contingent at the People’s Climate March in New York City, Sept. 2014.On March 12…
Continue readingLetters were hand-delivered to Japanese embassies and consulates around the world on March 11, 2015, marking the fourth anniversary of the start of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Beyond Nuclear participated in these actions by hand-delivering a letter…
Continue readingBeyond Nuclear’s radioactive waste watchdog, Kevin Kamps, was interviewed by Bill Moore, founder of EV WORLD: WORLD OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES on his inFOCUS video program. Their 30-minute dialogue covered a lot of ground, focusing on the latest news from Ja…
Continue readingMrs. Sachiko Sato (background) and her daughter Mina (age 13), speaking in New York City in September 2011. AP photo.In September 2011, about six months after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe began, Beyond Nuclear had the honor and privilege…
Continue readingWhat is new at the stricken Fukushima nuclear site since the March 11, 2011 nuclear disaster there began? What really happened? And what are the health implications, both in Japan and for the U.S. if a similar nuclear disaster happened here? The newly …
Continue readingBeyond Nuclear has released a press release, looking to tomorrow’s fourth anniversary since the Fukushima, Japan nuclear disater began.
Headlined: “Higher radiation doses could be ruled “acceptable” after nuclear disaster: “Fukushima” in the U.S. an ev…
Entergy Nuclear’s Palisades atomic reactor, located 4 miles south of South Haven, in Covert, MI on the Lake Michigan shoreline.An environmental coalition, represented by Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge, as well as expert witness Arnie Gundersen (Chie…
Continue readingThe Vogtle Unit 3 reactor pressure vessel, parked in front the Vogtle Unit 4 containment vessell bottom head, May 2013. Photo credit: Georgia Power.As reported by Matt Kempner in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the two new atomic reactors unde…
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