Climate Change

Nuclear power is counterproductive to efforts to address climate change effectively and in time. Funding diverted to new nuclear power plants deprives real climate change solutions like solar, wind and geothermal energy of essential resources.

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Tuesday
Nov072017

'America Last': US vs. Entire World After Syria Agrees to Join Paris Accord

"Every single other country in the world is moving forward together to tackle the climate crisis, while Donald Trump has isolated the United States on the world stage in an embarrassing and dangerous position." As reported by CommonDreams.

Thursday
Sep212017

Nuke Plants Plus Hurricanes: Disasters Waiting to Happen

Host Harvey Wasserman had Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps, as well as "Nuclear Hotseat" podcast host Libbe HaLevy, on his radio program, "Solartopia Green Power and Wellness Hour." They discussed NUKE POWER & NATURAL DISASTERS, which has become intensely important in the wake of HURRICANES HARVEY & IRMA. The terrifying realities of the hurricanes that swept through Texas and Florida have made it clear there is no way to evacuate from massive radiation releases during a meltdown in the midst of a major storm. We faced this problem during Hurricane Andrew in the early 1990s and were in grave danger again during these last two giant hurricanes. And that's just the least of it...between earthquakes, flooding, tsunamis, tornadoes and more, our rickety, dying reactors are at greater risk than ever. If you are at all concerned with the fate of the Earth, don't miss this extremely crucial, uniquely-informed discussion with three truly extraordinary experts. Listen to the hour-long interview, here. Wasserman just wrote an article based on the interview, published by The Progressive.

Thursday
Sep212017

Hurricane Maria Knocks Out Power & Causes Catastrophic Flooding in Puerto Rico

As reported by Democracy Now! in its morning news headlines:

Millions of people are without power in Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria made landfall Wednesday as a Category 4 storm. It was the most powerful hurricane to hit the island in nearly a century. Maria brought record rainfall and catastrophic flooding to Puerto Rico. The National Weather Service warned early this morning of flash flooding risks across the entire island. Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Roselló says at least one person has died on Puerto Rico and that the death toll may rise when communication with the southeastern part of the island is re-established. Meanwhile, the death toll on the island nation of Dominica has risen to 14 people. Maria caused widespread devastation there when it made landfall as a Category 5 storm. The storm also destroyed parts of the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and killed two people on the French island of Guadeloupe. Early this morning, Maria passed just north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, lashing the island with winds up to 115 miles an hour. It’s now gathering strength as it barrels toward Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.

DN! also mentioned at the very top of the hour that the U.S. military's live fire testing range of Vieques, Puerto Rico had suffered a direct hit from the hurricane, begging the question about environmental contamination, as from large quantities of depleted uranium (DU) test fired there over many years.

In addition, a research reactor is located in extreme western Puerto Rico, in Rincon, on a small peninsula of land jutting out into the ocean. It is called BONUS, short for Boiling Nuclear Superheater Reactor Facility. See the Wikipedia entry for BONUS, here.

If communications with parts of the island have not yet been re-established, it raises the concern about the status of that research reactor. Was there radioactive contamination on that site, that has now been washed "away" into the environment, to harm people downstream and downwind? Is there any high-level radioactive waste stored on-site, still in need of constant cooling, lest it heat up to dangerous temperatures, risking an out of control situation with severe radiological risks? Given the nuclear industry's norm for lack of transparency, these questions remain, and are important to ask and seek answers to.

DN! and other news outlets have pointed out that this hurricane is the worst to hit Puerto Rico in many decades, or even a century. That was before hazards like atomic reactors, and DU, even existed. Anti-nuke icon Helen Caldicott, Beyond Nuclear's founding president, has similarly pointed out that had atomic reactors dotted the map of Europe like they do now, at the time of World War II, the continent would now be uninhabitable. Much of Europe was rubblized in WWII.

Whether due to acts of war, natural disasters, or any other cause, a wrecked atomic reactor, or its on-site high-level radioactive waste storage facilities, would spell ecological catastrophe, due to large amounts of hazardous ionizing radioactivity escaping into the living environment.

Monday
Apr242017

Join NIRS & Beyond Nuclear for the People's Climate March! - FINAL planning call Tues., April 25 @ 8pm Eastern + Chernobyl +31: From Nuclear Disaster to Clean Energy Revolution, Wed., April 26 @ 8pm Eastern

Join NIRS & Beyond Nuclear for the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent at the People's Climate March in Washington, D.C. this Saturday, April 29th, and at sister marches across the country!

Please read on re: (1.) FINAL planning call Tues., April 25 @ 8pm Eastern; (2.) Chernobyl +31: From Nuclear Disaster to Clean Energy Revolution, Wed., April 26 @ 8pm Eastern (alerts from Tim Judson, NIRS):

(1.) FINAL planning call, Tues., April 25 @ 8pm Eastern

NIRS and Beyond Nuclear are organizing for the People's Climate March on April 29 - and we hope you'll join us!
 
Our FINAL planning call is tomorrow night for Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free mobilizations to the People's Climate March. We are just a few days away, and have a few key details to figure out. I hope you can make it.
 
Tuesday, April 25 @ 8pm Eastern 
(7pm CDT, 6pm MDT, 5pm PDT/MST)
 
Passcode: 1019692#
 
We have the details for April 29 in DC, but need to go over everything, figure out our plans for pre-March speakers, and check in with groups organizing for local marches throughout the country.
The march details for DC are posted on our PCM hub page (see just below), and our NFCF facebook page has links to the march route map and infographics you can share to promote the march and your mobilization efforts.
 
And please - if you are organizing a local/regional nuclear-free event/contingent for the People's Climate March, send me a link and/or contact info that we can share on the hub and facebook pages. 
 
Talk to you tomorrow night!

Tim
 
Tim Judson, Executive Director
Nuclear Information & Resource Service
(2.) Chernobyl +31: From Nuclear Disaster to Clean Energy Revolution, national call-in telebriefing, Wednesday, April 26 @ 8pm Eastern
 
We are doing this national call-in tele-briefing as a pre-event, to promote the nuclear-free, carbon-free message at the Climate March:
Chernobyl +31: From Nuclear Disaster to Clean Energy Revolution
Wed., April 26 @ 8pm Eastern
(7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific)
We will hear from people with first-hand experience of Chernobyl's impact on Ukraine, and energy experts on the way Chernobyl led to revolutionary changes in energy. 
Please like and share on Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/events/709339242608153/?ti=icl

Please help spread the word about this national call-in tele-briefing! Thanks! 

Thursday
Apr132017

JOIN NIRS, Beyond Nuclear, and the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent's mobilization for Climate Justice!

Action alert from Tim Judson, NIRS executive director:

Dear friend,

It's time to break out your marching shoes!  On April 29th, NIRS and the Nuclear-Free, Carbon-Free Contingent will join the People’s Climate March in Washington, DC, to demand immediate action from the US government and all of the governments of the world. We are marching for a 100% renewable, nuclear-free, carbon-free world.

The solutions to the climate crisis are clear: A rapid, just transition to a nuclear-free, carbon-free, 100% renewable energy system. It is an energy system that doesn't rely on antiquated energy models of the 20th Century and their polluting nuclear power and fossil fuel technologies, but on the safe, clean, affordable, and sustainable renewable energy, energy efficiency, and smart technologies of the 21st Century.

Nuclear power in particular cannot solve the climate crisis, JOIN US as we let the US government know!  Indeed, its continued use exacerbates global warming by preventing the deployment of clean energy systems.

Among a myriad of other problems, nuclear power is also rooted in environmental injustice and human rights violations.  First Nations, people of color, and low-income communities are targeted for uranium mining and radioactive waste. Radiation harms women and girls at twice the rate as their male counterparts. And radioactive pollution indiscriminately harms future generations, poisoning the environment for hundreds to thousands of years.

Clean energy, including solar, wind, geothermal, increased energy efficiency, distributed generation, electricity storage and other advanced technologies can meet the world’s energy needs without carbon and methane emissions, radiation releases, and other pollutants.

Please join us in organizing for the People’s Climate March, and in marching for a vision of a clean, safe, just CARBON-FREE and NUCLEAR-FREE world. 

Thanks for all you do!

Tim Judson
Executive Director

NIRS

JOIN THE MARCH! Sign up NOW!

The climate crisis is the defining issue of our time.  Immediate action is necessary to slash climate-changing emissions in all sectors of society.

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