Zombies urge TVA to use their brains and say NO to Bellefonte

Environmental Action Coalition's "Moving Beyond Dirty Energy" division reports that zombies descended on the Tennessee Valley Authority's Chattanooga offices on July 22nd, and again on TVA's Knoxville offices on August 5th, urging TVA's Board of Directors to remove from its August 18th meeting agenda the proposal to revive a "zombie nuke" at Bellefonte nuclear power plant that has been dormant since 1988. In fact, according to nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, dormant reactors at Bellefonte have been "cannibalized" for spare parts over the years and decades to be used at other TVA nuclear power plants, leaving Bellefonte in a dangerous state of disrepair. "United Against Bellefonte" organizers include: Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville, Statewide Organizing for Community Empowerment (SOCM), United Mountain Defense, TN Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team (BEST). Chattanooga's Times Free Press has posted a video story about the July 21st protest. There is also a YouTube video from the Knoxville protest rally.

Evidence mounts that earthquake damage doomed reactor to melt down even before tsunami hit

The Independent of the U.K., in an article entitled "The Explosive Truth Behind Fukushima's Meltdown," has reported mounting evidence indicating that earthquake damage in Daiichi Unit 1 was so severe that it was doomed to melt down even before the massive inundation from the tsunami knocked out emergency diesel generators, cutting off electricity to run vital cooling water pumps. The article reports: 

"This means that assurances from the industry in Japan and overseas that the reactors were robust is now blown apart," said Shaun Burnie, an independent nuclear waste consultant who works with Greenpeace. "It raises fundamental questions on all reactors in high seismic risk areas."

As Mr Burnie points out, Tepco also admitted massive fuel melt 16 hours after loss of coolant, and seven or eight hours before the explosion in Unit One. "Since they must have known all this, their decision to flood with massive water volumes would guarantee massive additional contamination – including leaks to the ocean."

The catastrophic consequences a terrorist attack at Indian Point could unleash

As the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks draws near, it is sobering and enlightening to remember a 2004 report written by Dr. Ed Lyman at Union of Concerned Scientists. Entitled "Chernobyl on the Hudson? The Health and Economic Impacts of a Terrorist Attack at the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant," the report concludes that despite a successful evacuation, up to 44,000 early fatalities would still be possible due to catastrophic radioactivity releases. Similarly, "over 500,000 latent cancer fatalities could occur under certain meteorological conditions." In addition, "The economic impact and disruption for New York City residents resulting from a terrorist attack on Indian Point could be immense, involving damages from hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars, and the permanent displacement of millions of individuals. This would dwarf the impacts of the September 11 attacks." Although Riverkeeper, the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition, and even New York Governor Cuomo continue to oppose Indian Point's 20 year license extension, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission appears poised to approve it, as it has more than 70 other license extensions at atomic reactors across the U.S. 

Statewide coalition forms to shut down California nuclear plants

San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace has put out a media release today:

"Following the August 7 MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) anti-nuclear concert, more than 60 California groups met in San Mateo for the first statewide Anti-Nuclear post-Fukushima Summit. Participants committed to continuing work towards the shut-down of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant and San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, both of which are immediately adjacent to major earthquake faults. In addition, summit members focused on energy conservation and clean, safe, renewable solutions to establish a nuclear-free California.

Among the groups participating were the following: Abalone Alliance Clearinghouse; Alliance for Survival; Coalition For Responsible Ethical Environmental Decisions (CREED); Ecological Options Network (EON); Friends of the Earth; Green Leap Forward; Greenpeace; Los Angeles Greens; No Nukes Caucus Veterans for Peace; No Nukes on Faults; Peace and Freedom Party; Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles; Redwood Alliance; Residents Organized for a Safe Environment (ROSE); Sacred Sites Peacewalk for a Nuclear Free World; San Clemente Green; San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace; Veterans for Peace Chapter 162 East Bay San Francisco; Women's Energy Matters.

The MUSE concert was a fund-raiser for the victims of the Fukushima disaster and for clean, safe energy. See Guacamole Fund website and Facebook for more information about the artists and the concert.

Photos of the MUSE concert, featuring Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and others are available at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mothers-for-Peace/183225733141
and at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guacamole-Fund/231062476903972." 

For more info., contact Jane Swanson with San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace at Janeslo@me.com, (805) 595-2605, or cell (805) 440-1359.

Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) helped pull the coalition meeting together. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps was in attendance.

NY federal congressional representatives still support nuclear power despite Fukushima catastrophe

Beyond Nuclear board member and investigative journalist Karl Grossman has published an article in the Shelter Island Reporter on Long Island, NY quoting both U.S. Senators from New York, as well as a number of current and past U.S. Representatives, as generally supportive of nuclear power, despite the still unfolding radioactive catastrophe in Japan. Karl contrasts this with the strongly anti-nuclear decisions occurring at the federal level in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and even Japan, buoyed by widespread protests in those countries.