"Exelon seeks FERC approval for life-support deal for Ginna nuclear plant"

NRC file photo of Exelon's Ginna atomic reactor on the shore of Lake Ontario, in Ontario, NY, 20 miles northeast of Rochester.As reported by Barry Cassell at PowerEngineering, Exelon Nuclear is seeking approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a plan that would gouge Rochester Gas & Electric (RG&E) ratepayers, at above market rates, to keep the uncompetitive Ginna atomic reactor in Ontario, NY operating till 2018 or even 2020. Exelon has lobbied and convinced RG&E, as well as the NYPSC (New York Public Service Commission) and NYISO (New York Independent System Operator), that Ginna is needed to maintain grid reliability.

Ginna is a small (581 Megawatt-electric), single unit nuclear power plant. Its operating license was issued in Sept., 1969, making it one of the very oldest atomic reactors still operating the U.S. In July 2013, energy economist Dr. Mark Cooper of Vermont Law School identified Ginna as one of the top reactors in the country at risk of near-term shutdown.

"Groups call on Dominion to abandon plans for North Anna 3 reactor"

NRC file photo of North Anna Units 1 and 2, located on the shore of Lake Anna in Mineral, VAAs reported by the Augusta Free Press (of Waynesboro, VA), a coalition of 15 groups (including the People's Alliance for Clean Energy, and the Sierra Club VA Chapter) called "Not on Our Fault Line" has re-asserted its opposition to Dominion Nuclear's proposed new atomic reactor, Unit 3, at its North Anna nuclear power plant in Mineral, VA. North Anna Units 1 and 2 were damaged by the August 2011 earthquake epicentered just 11 miles away, that was stronger in force than the two reactors were designed to withstand.

Unit 3 would be a General Electric-Hitach, so-called "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR). The RCOLA (Reference Construction and Operating License Application) for an ESBWR is at Fermi Unit 3 in Michigan, but North Anna 3 is not far behind.

As the article reports, seismic risks have long been known at the North Anna site. However, the nuclear utility and federal regulatory agency colluded for several years to keep the information from the public. The Japanese Parliament concluded in 2012 that the root cause of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe was collusion between the nuclear power industry, the government regulatory agency, and elected officials.

"Lake County condemns nuclear-waste storage in Great Lakes basin"

As reported by the Lake County News-Sun and the Chicago Tribune, Lake County, IL has joined the City of Waukegan in passing an official resolution opposing Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) proposed DGR ("Deep Geologic Repository") for so-called "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive waste burial, just 3/4ths of a mile from the shore of Lake Huron at the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station in Kincardine, Ontario. Kincardine is only about 50 miles across Lake Huron from the Tip of Michigan's Thumb, and less than 100 miles north-east of the international border at Port Huron-Sarnia (see photo, left). Learn more about resistance to the DGR at Beyond Nuclear's Canada website section.

"Will Ohioans Be Forced to Pay the Bill to Keep the Crumbling Davis-Besse Nuke Plant Alive?"

Harvey Wasserman, author of Solartopia, asks this question in an article posted at EcoWatch.

Dr. Ernest Sternglass, scientist, humanitarian, activist, public health investigator and so much more

Dr. Ernest Sternglass, 91, Emeritus Professor of Radiological Physics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, passed away in Ithaca, NY on February 12, 2015. He was a prominent, published scientist and anti-nuclear activist, whose early warnings about the health effects of low-level radiation from global nuclear weapons fallout contributed to the passage of the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty in 1963.  Dr. Sternglass would go on to focus on the public health threat from routine and accidental radiological releases from nuclear power plants.

During the Three Mile Island meltdown disaster in late March and early April, 1979 -- as hundreds of thousands spontaneously evacuated (PA Gov. Thornburgh merely advised that pregnant women and small children "voluntarily" evacuate, advice he issued days after the disaster had begun, and after the worst radiation releases had already occurred) -- Dr. Sternglass rushed into the area, with radiation monitoring equipment, in hopes of shedding light on the crisis, and providing vitally needed information to the public. So too did Dr. Judith Johnsrud, a founding Beyond Nuclear board member, who passed on in 2014.

The New York Times has published an obituary.