Nuclear Energy

Victory! Saskatchewan To Remain Nuclear Waste Free

April 20, 2015 Sandra Cuffe, www.intercontinentalcry.com Educate! Canada, Environment, indigenous, Land Rights, Nuclear Energy

Residents of northern Saskatchewan are celebrating an important victory this month after a four-year, hard-fought campaign to keep the province free of nuclear waste. On March 3, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announcedthat Creighton was no longer a contender in the organization’s siting process. It was the last of three Saskatchewan communities in the running to host a deep geological repository for the long term storage of spent fuel bundles from Canada’s nuclear reactors in Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick. “This announcement is the culmination of four years of research, sacrifice, networking and hard work by a group of dedicated people with one goal: to keep nuclear waste out of Saskatchewan,” said Candyce Paul, a founding member of the Committee for Future Generations.

Fukui Court Forbids Takahama Nuclear Plant Restart

April 16, 2015 Eric Johnston, www.japantimes.co.jp Resist! Environment, Japan, Nuclear Energy

Plans to bring Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Takahama No. 3 and 4 nuclear reactors back online were dealt a severe setback Tuesday when the Fukui District Court ordered that they not be restarted, citing safety concerns. It marks the first time in Japan’s nearly half-century of commercial atomic power operations that a court has approved a provisional injunction against firing up reactors. The decision comes despite the Nuclear Regulation Authority appraising the reactors against technical and safety criteria and clearing them for restart last November. The provisional injunction, unlike civil suit rulings, took effect immediately and remains valid until it is suspended or a request for a stay of execution is approved. Kepco plans to appeal the order and request a stay of execution.

Protesters In Taiwan Rally Against Nuclear Power

April 5, 2015 Bu Staff, www.globalvoicesonline.org Resist! Fukushima, Nuclear Energy, Taiwan

Major cities across Taiwan recently witnessed mass demonstrations advocating for renewable energy policy and the decommissioning of the country's nuclear power stations. On March 14, as many as 45,000 people protested against the plan of the state-owned Taiwan Power Company for sending abroad 1,200 highly radioactive used fuel rods from the island’s first and second nuclear plants. Reprocessing of these sent fuel rods would extend the service lives of the plants, which are scheduled to go out of service in the next six years. However, the protesters rejected the reprocessing because it is too expensive, and the radioactive products of reprocessing will be eventually sent back to Taiwan. Two days after the anti-nuke demonstration, the legislators agreed to freeze the Taiwan Power Company's plan to reprocess the fuel rods overseas. Concerns about Taiwan’s nuclear power plants have mounted since the Fukushima nuclear accident, which resulted from an earthquake and tsunami hitting Japan in March 2011. Also located on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, Taiwan faces significant risks with its three relatively outdated nuclear power plants.

CODEPINK Taught Senator Cotton About Constitution

March 24, 2015 CODEPINK, www.codepink.org Resist! Law, Nuclear Energy, Wars and Militarism

On Monday, March 23rd, the peace group CODEPINK will be attending an event hosted by the Foreign Policy Initiative where Senator Tom Cotton will deliver a keynote speech regarding ‘National Security Priorities in an Increasingly Dangerous World.’ Dressed as Colonial Revolutionaries and carrying Constitutions, members of CODEPINK will read Sen. Cotton an “Open Letter from the People of the United States.” The CODEPINK letter is a response to Cotton’s open letter to the government of Iran that purports to school Iranians on the US Constitution but is really designed to quash the nuclear talks. Cotton’s letter, signed by 46 other Republicans, falsely states that Congress has the power to revoke any nuclear deal reached with President Obama.

Fukushima: Amidst Radioactive Ruins, Renewable Energy Soars

March 13, 2015 Harvey Wasserman, www.commondreams.org Create! Fukushima, Japan, Nuclear Energy, Renewable Energy

The catastrophe that began at Fukushima four years ago today is worse than ever. But the good news can ultimately transcend the bad—if we make it so. An angry grassroots movement has kept shut all 54 reactors that once operated in Japan. It’s the largest on-going nuke closure in history. Big industrial windmills installed off the Fukushima coast are now thriving. Five U.S. reactors have shut since March 11, 2011. The operable fleet is under 100 for the first time in decades. Ohio’s Davis-Besse, New York’s Ginna, five reactors in Illinois and other decrepit American nukes could shut soon without huge ratepayer bailouts. Diablo Canyon was retrofitted—probably illegally—with $842 million in replacement partsuntested for seismic impact.

Netanyahu Admits Sabotage Of Iran Talks His Primary Mission

February 28, 2015 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Educate! Iran, Israel, Nuclear Energy, Wars and Militarism

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Tuesday that the purpose of his upcoming visit to Washington, D.C. is to do "everything I can" to prevent a nuclear deal between global powers and Iran—an admission that critics say reveals he is pushing for military escalation and potentially war. "This agreement, if indeed it is signed, will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state," Netanyahu declared in a statement released Tuesday, according to media reports. "It is my obligation as prime minister to do everything that I can to prevent this agreement." "Therefore," he continued, "I will go to Washington... because the American Congress is likely to be the final brake before the agreement." Analysts say that the prime minister's push to undermine the diplomatic process is ultimately a call for dangerous military escalation.

Fresh Nuclear Leak Detected At Fukushima Plant

February 24, 2015 AFP, www.news.yahoo.com Educate! Environment, Japan, Nuclear Energy, Public Health, Waste

Sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea, the plant's operator announced Sunday, highlighting difficulties in decommissioning the crippled plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the sensors, which were rigged to a gutter that pours rain and ground water at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to a nearby bay, detected contamination levels up to 70 times greater than the already-high radioactive status seen at the plant campus. TEPCO said its emergency inspections of tanks storing nuclear waste water did not find any additional abnormalities, but the firm said it shut the gutter to prevent radioactive water from going into the Pacific Ocean. The higher-than-normal levels of contamination were detected at around 10 am (0100 GMT), with sensors showing radiation levels 50 to 70 times greater than usual, TEPCO said.

Opposition To Expansion Of Nuclear Power Plant In Virginia

February 19, 2015 Friends of the Earth, www.foe.org Resist! Dominion, Energy, Environment, Nuclear Energy

Friends of the Earth, with 13 other organizations, submitted a letter to Governor Terry McAuliffe, Members of the Virginia General Assembly, Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners and energy company Dominion Resources urging against building a third nuclear reactor at the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Virginia. This proposed reactor would sit on an active earthquake fault and lacks a reliable water supply for cooling three reactors. The letter also emphasized the project’s high cost, a lack of any safe waste disposal solution and other inherent safety concerns related to nuclear reactors. "The nuclear tragedy at Fukushima should have made it clear that the risks of nuclear reactors are too great. Yet Dominion Virginia Power and the state of Virginia continue to flirt with disaster."

Anti-Fracking & No-Nukes Activists Join Forces For Renewable Energy

February 6, 2015 Harvey Wasserman, www.commondreams.org Organize! Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuel, Nuclear Energy, Renewable Energy

In the wake of Fukushima, the global campaign to bury atomic power has gained enormous strength. All Japan’s 54 reactors remain shut. Germany is amping up its renewable energy generation with a goal of 80 percent or more by 2050. Four U.S. reactors under construction are far over budget and behind schedule. Five old ones have closed in the last two years. In New England and elsewhere, as the old nukes go down, safe energy activists shift their attention to the deadly realities of fossil fuel extraction. The issues are familiar. Fracking in particular poisons our water and spews out huge quantities of lethal radiation. Ironically, in Ohio and elsewhere, the seismic instability it creates threatens atomic reactors still in operation.

Vermont Yankee And The Rest

January 8, 2015 John Laforge, www.counterpunch.org Resist! History, Nuclear Energy

On December 29, the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor was shut down for good, cancelled 18 years before its license expired. The shutdown comes after thousands of protest actions; widespread uncontrolled leaks of radioactive tritium; the shocking collapse of a cooling tower, operator mismanagement, lying and cover-ups, and the state legislature’s 2010 passage of a “shut-down by 2012” law–a statute later voided by a federal court. Entergy Corp.’s surrender announcement mentioned only “economic concerns.” Safety conscious Vermonters stood up and sat-in, petitioned, lobbied and blocked the gates for decades, working to see the 42-year-old unit shuttered. The “Shut It Down” affinity group was arrested over and over protesting the rickety operation they called a public health hazard akin to reckless endangerment.

Activists Permanently Shut Down Vermont Yankee Nuke Plant

December 30, 2014 Harvey Wasserman, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Fracking, Nuclear Energy

The Vermont Yankee atomic reactor goes permanently off-line today, Dec. 29, 2014. Citizen activists have made it happen. The number of licensed U.S. commercial reactors is now under 100 where once it was to be 1,000. Decades of hard grassroots campaigning by dedicated, non-violent nuclear opponents, working for a Solartopian green-powered economy, forced this reactor’s corporate owner to bring it down. Entergy says it shut Vermont Yankee because it was losing money. Though fully amortized, it could not compete with the onslaught of renewable energy and fracked-gas. Throughout the world, nukes once sold as generating juice “too cheap to meter” comprise a global financial disaster. Even with their capital costs long-ago stuck to the public, these radioactive junk heaps have no place in today’s economy—except as illegitimate magnets for massive handouts.

One Less Fukushima-Type Reactor Threatens US

December 28, 2014 Jim Riccio, www.greenpeaceblogs.org Resist! Fukushima, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power

After a long struggle, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant near Brattleboro is slowing shutting down and will cease to split atoms on December 29th. Congratulations to the people of Vermont! Their steadfast efforts over decades made this victory a reality and now there is one less General Electric Mark I reactor, the same design as those that melted down and exploded in Fukushima, threatening New England. John F. Kennedy once said the “Victory has a thousand fathers ….” This one had a mother and a lot of aunts and uncles too. I cannot mention Vermont Yankee or Yankee Rowe for that matter without lauding my friend and colleague Deb Katz and the Citizen’s Awareness Network. (CAN) Deb and CAN understood that the restructuring of the electricity market offered Vermonters an opportunity to have a say in the fate of Vermont Yankee. They got Vermont the vote that precipitated this shutdown.

Washington State To Sue Federal Gov’t Over Nuclear Site Vapors

November 24, 2014 Victoria Cavaliere, www.reuters.com Organize! Law, Nuclear Energy, Washington

Washington state's attorney general said on Wednesday he intends to sue the U.S. government for not adequately protecting workers involved in the decades-long cleanup of a decommissioned nuclear site, saying dozens have been sickened by toxic vapors. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a World War Two-era nuclear weapons site in southeastern Washington, has 56 million gallons (211.98 million liters) of nuclear waste in 177 underground tanks, several with known leaks, according to federal officials. The U.S. Department of Energy, which owns Hanford, is responsible for cleanup at the site, including the hiring of contractors and workers to extract the waste from tanks for safe disposal.

Nuclear Industry Seeks To Stop Clean Energy

November 18, 2014 Staff, www.nirs.org Educate! Climate Change, Climate Justice, Nuclear Energy, Solar, Wind

Left to the market and public opinion the future is solar, wind and other clean, sustainable energy sources. A solar and nuclear future is a major shift and the old dirty energy corporations are doing all they can to prevent it. The nuclear industry, in particular is taking actions at all level government to protect their dying industry from extinction. They want to stop efforts to reduce waste and increase efficiency so they can keep electricity prices artificially high. Along with this they seek to subsidize nuclear and dirty energy sources while increasing the cost of clean energy. They also want to be considered a clean energy so that dirty energy corporations can purchase carbon credits by investing in nuclear. Below is a pamphlet from the Nuclear Information and Resource Sources that is a summary of a report they have published on how the nuclear industry is working to undermine solar, wind and other sustainable clean energy sources. The full report is: “Killing the Competition: The Nuclear Power Agenda to Block Climate Action, Stop Renewable Energy, and Subsidize Old Reactors.”

Find Out If Your Child’s School Is Near A Chemical Plant

October 30, 2014 Anastasia Pantsios, www.ecowatch.com Educate! Education, Nuclear Energy

In the early evening of April 17, 2013, a fertilizer storage and distribution facility on the small town of West, Texas, blew up, killing 15 people, injuring 160 more and leveling much of the town. The plant was last inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 1985. The company had apparently failed to report the amount of dangerous ammonium nitrate the facility stored. Among the buildings destroyed was the West Middle School, which fortunately was not occupied at the time. But ineffective safety regulations, coupled with public ignorance about chemical plants, are putting millions of U.S. schoolchildren at risk, according to a new interactive map put together by the Center for Effective Government (CEG).

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