Arnie Gundersen: "something does not make sense here"

Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds AssociatesCommenting on the loud rumors that Entergy Nuclear's Vermont Yankee -- and other relatively small, single unit, four decade old atomic reactors -- may be forced to "retire" due to "economic reasons" (such as the inability to afford needed major safety repairs), Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates had this question:

"The US is building new nuclear plants in Georgia and SC that cost $20 billion while at the same time contemplating the shutdown of dozens of older reactors that cost $200M …. something does not make sense here."

"From Fukushima to Fermi-3: Getting to Solartopia Before It's Too Late"

Harvey Wasserman, Senior Advisor to Greenpeace USA and Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)Keith Gunter (a Beyond Nuclear Launch Partner) and Carol Izant, Co-Chairs of the Alliance to Halt Fermi-3, have announced that nationally renowned author and activist Harvey Wasserman (pictured left) will speak on Friday, December 7th from 7-9 PM at the Dearborn (Michigan) Public Library, located at 16301 Michigan Avenue (between Southfield & Greenfield, adjacent to the AMTRAK station).

Harvey's presentation, entitled "From Fukushima To Fermi-3: Getting To Solartopia Before It's Too Late," represents the formal launch of the new organization, the Alliance to Halt Fermi-3. Harvey is a prolific author, including such books as Solartopia! Our Green Powered Earth, A.D. 2030, and the hot off the press How the GOP Could Steal the 2012 Election: Corporate Vote Theft and the Future of American Democracy. Harvey serves as the editor of NukeFree.org, and has been a leading anti-nuclear power activist since the early 1970s.

If you live near Metro Detroit, please come! And please spread the word to folks you know who reside in the area.

Beyond Nuclear is proud to currently serve as the fiduciary agent for the Alliance to Halt Fermi-3.

Beyond Nuclear, along with Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination (CACC), Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (CEA), Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter officially intervened against the proposed new Fermi-3 atomic reactor in early 2009, shortly after nuclear utility Detroit Edison filed a combined Construction and Operating License Application (COLA) with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Beyond Nuclear welcomes the Alliance to Halt Fermi-3 to this important work!

Beyond Nuclear debates "thorium power" proponent at Sierra Club meeting

On October 10th, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps debated Timothy Maloney, a proponent of so-called "thorium (nuclear) power," at a meeting of the Nepessing Group of the Sierra Club's Michigan Chapter, at Mott Community College's Regional Technical Center in Flint. The Nepessing Group of Michigan represents Sierra Club members in Genesee, Lapeer, and northern Oakland counties.

Kevin's research in preparation for the debate depended on: a Beyond Nuclear backgrounder compiled by Linda Gunter; "Thorium Fuel -- No Panacea for Nuclear Power," by Dr. Arjun Makhijani of Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and Michele Boyd of Physicians for Social Responsibility (2009); a Science Friday program entitled "Is Thorium a Magic Bullet for our Energy Problems?" featuring Dr. Makhijani (May 4, 2012); "Thinking about Thorium" by Dr. Gordon Edwards of Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (Sept. 16, 2012); "Thorium Reactors: Back to the Dream Factory," by Dr. Edwards (July 13, 2011); and "What is the Thorium Cycle?" by Dr. Edwards (1978).

The Thorium-232/Uranium-233 nuclear fuel chain shares many similarities with the Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239 nuclear fuel chains, including the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation, the risk that reactors could unleash catastrophic amounts of radioactivity (particularly from intentional terrorist attacks or acts of warfare), the unsolved (unsolvable?!) radioactive waste problem, the astronomical expense of RDD (research, development, and demonstration) for "thorium reactors," and the environmental ruination downwind and downstream (as well as up the food chain and down the generations) from reprocessing facilities.

Chris Williams (VCAN, VYDA), "Entergy Watch: Resisting Palisades Atomic Reactor," WMU's Bernhard Ctr., Kzoo, MI, Thurs., Oct. 11, 4-5:30 PM

Entergy Nuclear: Resisting a Rogue Corporation, and its Radioactive Risks

A presentation by Chris Williams of Vermont Citizen Action Network (VCAN) and Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance (VYDA)

4:00 to 5:30 PM, Thursday, October 11^th, 2012

Western Michigan University, Bernhard Center, Brown and Gold Room (2^nd Floor, Room #242), 1903 W. Michigan Ave.,

Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5408 (click here for directions to campus, location of parking, etc.)

Come learn about Entergy Nuclear’s dirty dozen atomic reactors, including the problem-plagued Palisades near South Haven. Chris Williams is a leader of the ongoing, highly successful grassroots campaign to shutdown Entergy's dangerously degraded Vermont Yankee atomic reactor (a Fukushima Daiichi twin design). Having stopped proposed new reactors in Indiana during his 25 years of service as Executive Director of Citizen Action Coalition, he will show how community organizing can stop dirty, dangerous, and expensive atomic reactors, and replace them with efficiency and renewables like wind and solar. 

Co-sponsored by Beyond Nuclear (www.beyondnuclear.org)  and the Kalamazoo Peace Center (www.kzoopeacecenter.org)

Contact: Kevin Kamps, Beyond Nuclear, kevin@beyondnuclear.org, (240) 462-3216

For more info. on Palisades, click here.

For more background on Chris Williams, click here.

NRC's Nuke Waste Confidence EIS will delay reactor licenses for at least two years!

Cover of Beyond Nuclear's pamphlet "A Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High"The five Commissioners who direct the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have just ordered NRC Staff to carry out an expedited, two-year long Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process to revise the agency's Nuclear Waste Confidence Decision (NWCD) and Rule. Critics have charged the NWCD is a confidence game, which for decades has prevented environmental opponents of new reactor construction/operation licenses, as well as old reactor license extensions, from raising high-level radioactive waste generation/storage concerns during NRC licensing proceedings, or even in the federal courts. This EIS process and NWCD revision will thus delay any final NRC approval for new reactor construction/operation licenses, or old reactor license extensions, for at least two years.

The "Mountain of Radioactive Waste 70 Years High" conference in Chicago Dec. 1-3 will serve as a launch pad for generating public comments to NRC on this EIS, as well as to push back against the nuclear establishment's backlash proposals to begin "Mobile Chernobyl" irradiated nuclear fuel shipments by road, rail, and waterway to "consolidated interim storage." See Beyond Nuclear's pamphlet on high-level radioactive waste (cover reproduced at left). More.