Solar-energized Juno to arrive at Jupiter on Independence Day

NASA Juno Spacecraft graphic, showing the three large solar panels providing it power, with Jupiter pictured in the backgroundInvestigative journalist Karl Grossman has been watch-dogging nukes in space since the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.

As Grossman relates in his latest article, "Solar-energized Juno to arrive at Jupiter on Independence Day":

I broke the story 30 years ago about how the next mission of NASA’s ill-fated Challenger shuttle was to involve lofting a plutonium-powered space probe and I have been reporting in articles, books and on television on the nuclear-in-space issue ever since.

Grossman conveys the breakthrough Juno's well timed arrival at Jupiter (July 4th -- America's Independence Day) represents, showing that solar can power not just satellites orbiting Earth, and Mars missions, but also deep space missions. More.

UK solar expert, Prof. Keith Farnham, to speak in Takoma Park

At the invitation of Beyond Nuclear, Professor Keith Barnham, a U.K. solar expert, will give a talk in Takoma Park on Thursday, July 21st 7-9pm at the community center at city hall. For more information, please see our flier.

Could the rooftops of our homes generate unlimited supplies of solar fuel from sunlight and carbon dioxide?

How can the example of Takoma Park help lead a nationwide renewable energy revolution?

What can we learn from renewable energy policies and programs in Europe that could apply here?

Why will closing nuclear plants lead to more renewable energy and not more fossil fuels?

Keith Barnham, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Distinguished Research Fellow from Imperial College London, England, will discuss these questions and other ground-breaking steps toward a 100% renewable energy economy.

Learn about the “artificial leaf”; about solar cells with three times the efficiency of today’s rooftop panels (developed by Barnham’s research group); and about the GIFTS campaign (Get It From The Sun) now underway in the U.K. 

Barnham’s talk will include questions from and discussions with the audience.  Barnham is the author of The Burning Answer: the Solar Revolution, a Quest for Sustainable Power.  Copies of the book will be on sale and signed by the author. More about Barnham's work.

TRT World's The Newsmakers: 30 Years Since Chernobyl

As featured on TRT World's "The Newsmakers": Thirty years since the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, The Newsmakers asks Kevin Kamps [of Beyond Nuclear in Washington, D.C., U.S.A.] and Jonathan Cobb [of the World Nuclear Association in London, U.K.] what lessons have been learnt from the world's worst civil nuclear disaster. [Watch the segment, from the beginning of the recording to the 14 minute 12 second mark.]

Much of the debate centered on the roll of renewables (such as wind and solar) and efficiency -- instead of nuclear power -- in averting climate catastrophe.

NIRS telebriefing on "Paris Onward," featuring Drs. Jacobson, Makhijani, and Ramana

Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) Executive Director Tim Judson moderated a discussion featuring Dr. Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, Dr. Arjun Makhijani of Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), and Dr. M.V. Ramana of Princeton University (a Beyond Nuclear Board of Advisors member), regarding the role of renewable sources of energy in light of the COP21 (21st Council of Parties) climate agreement emerging from Paris, France in December. In short, "wind, water, and sun" are dramatically outcompeting a significantly declining nuclear power industry as the low carbon solutions to the climate crisis. NIRS has made an audio recording of the discussion available.

"NV Energy, PUC price solar energy beyond residents’ reach"

Solar power is under attack in sun-soaked Nevada.

Judy Treichel, executive director of the Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force, has an op-ed featured in the appropriately named Las Vegas Sun, which begins:

During the 30 years I have fought efforts to bring the nation’s highly radioactive waste to Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, nuclear power supporters would ask, “So how do you think the lights will stay on without nuclear power?” My answer was, “In Nevada we have enough sunlight and solar power potential to keep our lights on and share some with you!”

So when the price of solar panels for residential installations dropped significantly, we tapped $8,500 from our retirement savings — after taking into account an NV Energy rebate and federal tax credit — and become a solar household. We were solar-powered all of last year, and our annual savings showed our system would pay for itself within 14 years. Moreover, it was right for the environment.

But with what’s happened in recent weeks, we feel financially ambushed. We’ve penciled out the recent increase for residential solar customers that NV Energy proposed and the Nevada Public Utility Commission approved and allowed to begin this month. Bottom line: Our system will never pay for itself. In fact, because rooftop solar is a different NV Energy rate class, an ordinary, modest-sized home in Southern Nevada will have larger power bills with rooftop solar than without, even though we will not tax the power grid and will generate renewable power for other NV Energy customers. This outrageous outcome overturns years of policy advances in Nevada to expand the use of renewable resources.

(Read the entire op-ed here.)

Judy, along with Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force's Steve Frishman, told their sad and shocking solar sabotage story on Harvey Wasserman's Solartopia radio show.