"NRG Energy Inc. officially ended plans to build more nuclear power reactors in Texas.
The second-largest power generator in the state said Tuesday it will stop spending money on plans to build two more reactors at the South Texas Project, outside of Houston. The project was doomed when a financial partner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., saw its reactors in Japan explode after the earthquake." The Dallas Morning News
The National Academy of Sciences held its second of five public meetings on April 18 in a Chicago suburb. View the webcast of the meeting.
Both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Exelon gave presentations on their policies and procedures for monitoring release data and reconstruction of doses to members of the public. Question and answer sessions followed in which the committee members engaged the presenters.
Dr. Joseph Sauer also presented Illinois health data that appears to show increases in cancer incidence.
The public comment session followed at 7:30 PM with several community members, including from Minnesota, and Beyond Nuclear offering information.
Tentaive upcoming meetings of this NAS panel are scheduled as follows, although session open to the public and public comment times are not yet announced:
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Meeting #3 |
Atlanta |
May 23-24, 2011 |
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Meeting #4 |
Los Angeles |
July 20-21, 2011 |
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Meeting #5 |
TBD |
August 29-30, 2011 |
The archived video of the open session of the first committee meeting is available here. Presentations available here.
Beyond Nuclear is encouraging citizens in and around these meeting sites to come and participate. Please contact us for more information.
Greenpeace Canada has posted a YouTube video of its occupation of the Ontario provincial energy minister's office -- as well as installation of a wind turbine out front! -- to protest the proposal for up to 4 new atomic reactors at the Darlington nuclear power plant site east of Toronto, already "home" to four atomic reactors.
Beyond Nuclear has submitted a Title 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 2.206 (10CFR2.206) "emergency enforcement petition" to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) urging the suspension of 21 General Electric Boiling Water Reactor Mark 1s' operating licenses in the wake of the catastrophic failure of identical containment systems at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant in Japan. In addition, Beyond Nuclear has petitioned that a total of 24 GE BWR Mark 1 storage pools for high-level radioactive waste in the U.S. be required to install backup power supplies for running cooling water circulation systems in the event of a loss of the primary electrical grid, something they now lack, despite their location outside of a primary containment structure. See Beyond Nuclear's 2.206 "emergency enforcement petition," as well as NRC's announcement of its docketing. Also see Beyond Nuclear's media release on this petition.
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See the Triangle Business Journal's story on Beyond Nuclear's request.
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See the NRC's May 12th memo laying out the agenda and the ground rules for the June 8th Petition Review Board meeting.
Don’t Let it Happen Here: Japan’s Nuclear Disaster Now on Par with Chernobyl
Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) is introducing new legislation - the Nuclear Power Plant Safety Act of 2011. Please urge your representatives to co-sponsor this Act. As Markey writes to his colleagues: “A nuclear disaster could happen here in America just as it has in Japan, our technological equal. This legislation will ensure that the lessons to be learned from the nuclear meltdown in Japan are incorporated into U.S. regulations to ensure the safety of our nuclear power plants in the United States.
“As these catastrophic events have unfolded, it has become clear that the meltdown did not occur primarily because of earthquake-related damage; rather, it occurred because of a prolonged loss of electricity to the reactor cores and their spent nuclear fuel pools. Such events could be caused not just by earthquakes or tsunamis, but by severe storms, terrorist attacks or other events.”
The Nuclear Power Plant Safety Act of 2011 will impose a moratorium on ALL new reactor licenses, reactor designs or license extensions until new safety requirements are in place. If your representatives need more information or would like to cosponsor the legislation, please have them contact Dr. Michal Freedhoff of Markey’s staff at 202-225-2836. Read the full Markey letter here.
