New York Times editorial: "Nuclear Power After Fukushima"

In a May 25th editorial, the New York Times lauded outgoing U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman, Gregory Jaczko, for his devotion to safety -- such as his call for clear and ambitious deadlines for "Fukushima lessons learned" to be applied at U.S. atomic reactors -- and called on his nominated replacement, Dr. Allison Macfarlane, to keep holding NRC's and the nuclear power industry's feet to the fire.

But, as Beyond Nuclear board of directors member Karl Grossman has put it in his article "Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission," the New York Times "misses the institutional point": Jaczko was crucified by the nuclear power industry, and its friends within the NRC and on Capitol Hill, for his safety advocacy, a fate that could easily befall Macfarlane as well.

"Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission" by Karl Grossman

Investigative journalist, and Beyond Nuclear board of directors member, Karl Grossman (pictured, left), has published an article entitled "Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission" which has appeared at the Huffington Post and elsewhere. In it, Karl reports that U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman, Dr. Gregory Jaczko, has been pressured to resign over a year early due to withering attacks by the nuclear power industry and its friends within the NRC and on Capitol Hill, due to his safety advocacy. Karl points out that NRC has never, in its nearly 40 years of existence, denied a license to construct or operate a commercial atomic reactor. It has also rubberstamped 73 license extensions for 20 additional years of operation at U.S. atomic reactors, with 13 other license extensions already applied for.

Most US GE BWR Mark Is and IIs have already had their 40-year operating licenses extended to 60 years by NRC. The only ones that haven't are the two Limerick Mark IIs in PA, the Fermi 2 Mark I in MI, and the two LaSalle Mark IIs in IL.

"Are U.S. Nuclear Plants Ready for a Fukushima-like Meltdown?"

PBS NewsHour has posed this question, focusing on Entergy Nuclear's River Bend, Louisiana and Indian Point, New York nuclear power plants, featuring the Union of Concerned Scientists' recent report "Living on Borrowed Time: The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety in 2011" (which documented that 5 of the 15 most serious "near-misses" last year took place at Entergy nuclear plants: 2 at Palisades, MI; 2 at Pilgrim, MA; 1 at Cooper, NE), and interviewing outgoing U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko, forced out of the agency by his fellow Commissioners' reluctance to expedite "Fukushima lessons learned" safety upgrades at U.S. atomic reactors.

Pilgrim and Cooper at GE BWR Mark Is, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4.

Fourteen arrested in nonviolent direct action at Plymouth, MA nuke

Pilgrim is a problem-plagued GE BWR Mark I atomic reactor, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4.

The Cape Downwinders organized a nonviolent civil disobedience on May 20, 2012  to protest the continued operation of the Pilgrim nuclear generating station in Plymouth, Massachusetts,. Fourteen citizens were arrested for refusing to leave the private property of the Fukushima-design GE Mark I boiling water reactor 38 miles southeast of Boston.They were charged with a misdeameanor charge of "criminal trespass." The affinity group was delivering the group's letter to the nuclear power facility operator, Entergy.  Entergy has been the focus of nonviolent direct actions for the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and massive public demonstrations around its Indian Point nuclear generating station in Buchannan, NY reactor just 25 miles north of New York City.

Cesium Red Alert--Petition UN to intervene at Fukushima Unit 4

The United Nations is being called upon to intervene in an extremely critical situation still emerging at the damaged Unit 4 amidst the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe. Another earthquake is feared could topple the already damaged Unit 4 reactor building where more than one hundred tons of high-level nuclear waste sits precariously in a  open storage pool elevated ten stories (100 feet) above grade.  Should the reactor building topple and spill the contents of cooling water and nuclear waste onto the ground, a new and more potent radioactive catastrophe would commence beginning with a radioactive fire releasing 10 times the amount of Cesium-137 released into the atmosphere from Chernobyl. This enlarged catastrophe would then engulf the other five reactor units and a common nuclear waste pool potentially releasing 85 times the amount of radioactive cesium.

You are encouraged to sign the "Cesium Red Alert" petition to United Nation's Secretary Ban Ki-Moon and pass it along.

Of course, the U.S. faces potentially catastrophic risks at its 31 GE BWR Mark I and II high-level radioactive waste storage pools, as well.

In fact, U.S. pools hold significantly more waste than their Japanese counterparts. Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 held 219 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel, according to the Japanese Parliament's committee investigating the catastrophe. But as but a couple examples, the Pilgrim, MA and Fermi 2, MI Mark I pools hold more than 600 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel, each! In fact, Pilgrim and Fermi 2's pools hold every single irradiated nuclear fuel assembly ever generated by those reactors!