God's River, by filmmakers Gabriela Bulisova and Mark Isaac

GOD’S RIVER is a short documentary film created by Mark Isaac and Gabriela Bulisova as part of their work in Ukraine supported by a Fulbright grant. Energy producers and environmentalists agree that climate change has significantly reduced the flow of the Southern Bug River, the longest river entirely within Ukraine. But the two camps differ dramatically on how to respond. The state-operated nuclear conglomerate, EnergoAtom, proposes to raise water levels behind Alexandrivsky Dam, flooding a portion of Buszky Gard National Park. But a unique coalition of veterans, academics, environmentalists and Ukrainian nationalists opposes the plan because it will threaten endangered plants and animals, submerge archaeological digs, and destroy Gardove Island, a place that is sacred to Cossack heritage. While some urge compromise, others claim concessions could permanently kill the river. Returning soldiers from the Donbas region forthrightly embrace the struggle as an extension of the war effort. If the Ukrainian Parliament approves the plan, they have pledged — along with their allies — to occupy Gardove Island, where a Cossack church once stood, and protect it “by all means necessary, including radical ones.”

South Carolina Spent $9 Billion to Dig a Hole in the Ground and Then Fill it Back in

As reported by Akela Lacy in The Intercept.

How effective is nuclear power as a climate solution, if it costs too much, and takes to long?! (not to mention its own insurmountable risks)

Current risk of winter hurricane harkens back to White Hurricane of 1913, in vicinity of proposed DUD

In the Washington Post, meteorologist Jason Samenow has published an article entitled "East Coast prepares for most severe winter weather yet as monster storm takes shape," which reports:

The rapidly intensifying storm will hammer areas from north Florida to Maine with ice and snow and could resemble a winter hurricane in places by Thursday. Some blizzard warnings have already been issued and more could come. (emphasis added)

This harkens back to the White Hurricane of 1913, a most severe winter blizzard responsible for the largest loss of life on the Great Lakes in history. Some of the worst took place in Goderich, Ontario, Canada, on the shoreline of Lake Huron. Horrifically, a 40-foot tsunami like wave crashed into the port and town, drowning many. 

It just so happens that Goderich is not far down the road from Kincardine, "home" to the largest nuclear power plant in the world, Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, with a total of nine reactors (one permanently shutdown prototype, and eight still operable reactors) on the Lake Huron shore. 

Bruce is also targeted for the permanent burial dump for all of Ontario's "low" and "intermediate" level radioactive wastes, from a total of 20 reactors. The most reactors in any U.S. state, by comparison, was IL, with 14. Three of those have since permanently shut down, taking IL's current number of reactors down to 11 operating. The Ontario Power Generation DGR (short for Deep Geologic Repository) would be just over a half-mile from the water's edge. 

At 2013-2014 Joint Review Panel proceedings on the OPG DGR license application, Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps orally testified that the DUD (short for Deep Underground Dump) would be at risk of such tsunami-like waves coming in off of Lake Huron, inundating the burial dump, leading to potentially catastrophic releases of hazardous radioactivity into the drinking water supply for tens of millions of people downstream.

But such blizzard ("hurricane")-generated waves are just one natural disaster scenario at the site.

There is also the risk of seiches, which are wind-blown flooding events along the Great Lakes shores.

But there are also Great Lakes/fresh water tsunamis on these inland seas.

See

http://michiganradio.org/post/ever-heard-great-lakes-tsunami-scientist-says-they-happen-about-100-times-year

and

http://michiganradio.org/post/scientists-want-create-warning-system-freshwater-tsunamis

which mention nuclear power plants, and the radioactive wastes stored there, as in dry casks, as of particular concern. Thus, it's not just OPG's DUD that would be at risk. So too are atomic reactors, and on-site radioactive waste storage.

There are dozens of atomic reactors with on-site radioactive waste storage ringing the shores of the Great Lakes in the U.S. and Canada. See a 2013 map by Anna Tilman of International Institute of Concern for Public Health and John Jackson of Great Lakes United, to see just how many nuclear facilities line the shorelines of the Great Lakes, at risk of natural disasters -- and worsening extreme weather events due to climate destabilization due to global warming.

By the way, as shown on the map (in the upper right hand corner), Goderich itself was under consideration for Canada's high-level nuclear waste (irradiated nuclear fuel) DGR/DUD, as well. Since 2013, however, it has been removed from the target list. However, two municipalities near Bruce in Kincardine are still under consideration. So are other sites within the Great Lakes basin, including on its shorelines. This DGR/DUD would be for high-level radioactive waste/irradiated nuclear fuel from all 22 atomic reactors across Canada, not only in Ontario, but also in Quebec and New Brunswick. Such a DGR/DUD would also be vulnerable to natural disasters and worsening extreme weather events, if located on the Great Lakes shores.

Nuclear Reactors/Climate Change Lies: Gundersen Busts Nuke Industry’s PR Ploy – Nuclear Hotseat #338

This Week's Feature:

Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education , former nuclear industry Senior Vice President and whistleblower, explains global warming in terms of an apple <!>, then takes apart the nuclear industry’s claims that we “need” 1,000 new nuclear reactors to combat climate change.  Brilliant, concise, filled with talking points we all need to know and use.

Listen to the full podcast, here.

And watch the following 2-minute animation from Fairewinds to get the picture:

http://www.fairewinds.org/nuclear-energy-education//smokescreen?rq=smokescreen

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

Leave it to Japan to promote the produce from the Fukushima region by serving it to the Organizing Committee of both the Olympics and Paralympics, and planning to serve nothing but Fukushima-area food to the athletes in 2020.  No testing for radiation contamination, just a PR blitz to convince everyone that there ain’t nothing wrong with food grown in a radiation contamination area.

Special Report: Revolt at Trump’s Pro-Coal, Pro-Nuclear & Pro-Gas Panel Rocks U.N. Climate Summit

Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!As reported by Democracy Now!

The Trump administration, which has decided to make the United States the only country in the world to not subscribe to the Paris Climate Agreement, met with fierce and impassioned resistance at the UN Council of Parties (COP23) climate gathering in Bonn, Germany.

As Democracy Now! reports:

Democracy Now! was there when activists and Democratic lawmakers at the U.N. climate summit in Bonn, Germany, staged a full-fledged revolt Monday when the Trump administration made its official debut at this year’s conference with a forum pushing coal, gas and nuclear power. The presentation was entitled “The Role of Cleaner and More Efficient Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power in Climate Mitigation.” The panel was the only official appearance by the U.S. delegation during this year’s U.N. climate summit. Of the four corporate representatives pushing nuclear, gas and coal, Lenka Kollar of NuScale Power and Amos Hochstein of Tellurian told Amy Goodman that they disagreed with Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the climate agreement.

The reason that the nuclear power industry supports the Paris climate agreement is that it would like to sell its snake oil to the world as the supposed solution to the very real problem. But IEER showed clearly 11 years ago, nuclear power is not the answer (the very title of Beyond Nuclear founding president Helen Caldicott's 2006 book). IEER also showed, a decade ago, that efficiency and renewables are the answer--and Germany, for one, the fourth largest economy in the world, is following that carbon-free, nuclear-free roadmap!