Environmentalists defend challenge against Davis-Besse license extension

Davis-Besse's infamous "red photo," showing boric acid crystal and rust "lava" flowing from the reactor lid.On Tuesday, March 1st, the environmental coalition resisting the Davis-Besse atomic reactor's 20 year license extension defended its contentions before a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety (sic) Licensing Board at the Ottawa County Common Pleas Court in Port Clinton, Ohio near the nuclear power plant. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps defended the coalition's contention that FirstEnergy had severely underestimated the costs and casualties that would result from a severe accident and catastrophic radioactivity release at the problem-plagued reactor. Phyllis Oster, a Beyond Nuclear supporter from Bowling Green, Ohio who resisted the reactor's construction in the first place four decades ago, has provided standing to Beyond Nuclear to take part in this proceeding. Toledo attorney Terry Lodge, on behalf of Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, defended the coalition's wind and solar photovoltaics alternatives to the 20 year license extension. Green Party co-chair Anita Rios, a lifelong Toledo resident, testified about her concerns for her family living downwind of Davis-Besse. The court room was packed with concerned citizens, as reported by the local newspaper. The Toledo Blade also covered the hearing, as did Toledo's NBC affiliate. The coalition's media release also helped generate coverage by a number of area National Public Radio affiliates, including Michigan Radio-Ann Arbor, WDET in Detroit, and Kent State NPR in Ohio.

Chernobyl was lesson in nuclear peril: Gorbachev

The upcoming 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster is a brutal reminder of the dangers of nuclear power, proliferation and terrorism, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said on Tuesday. "The true scope of the tragedy still remains beyond comprehension and is a shocking reminder of the reality of the nuclear threat," Gorbachev said in an essay published by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a watchdog organisation on nuclear security. Nuclear Power Daily

Another retreat as partner pulls out of VA nuclear expansion

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative has pulled out of plans to share in the construction of a third reactor at the current North Anna site in Louisa, Virginia. According to news reports, leadership at Old Dominion felt that "participating in this proposed nuclear project does not fit with our long-term plans." Old Dominion owns an 11.6 percent interest in, and shares the power generated by, North Anna's existing Units 1 and 2. This is not the first bump in the road for Dominion Power. It has already balked at the capital costs, predicting these would slow progress on the project. And the company has already rejected one design from GE Hitachi  - a boiling water reactor - switching to a pressurized water reactor design by Mitsubishi last May.

"Activists to state case on Davis-Besse license," Toledo Blade

Infamous "red photo" from Davis-Besse showing "lava" of boric acid crystals and rust flowing from reactor lid.Tom Henry at the Toledo Blade has given advance coverage of tomorrow's Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board oral argument pre-hearing in Port Clinton, Ohio, near Davis-Besse atomic reactor. Beyond Nuclear, along with allies Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Green Party of Ohio, have submitted four contentions against First Energy Nuclear Operating Company's proposed 20 year license extension: (1) wind as an alternative; (2) solar photovoltaics as an alternative; (3) wind and solar combined as an alternative; and (4) severe underestimation of the casualties and costs that would result from a catastrophic radioactivity release. On February 18, 2011, the ASLB ruled in favor of FirstEnergy's motion to strike, and ordered the environmental coalition to "strike" long sections of its "Combined Reply" rebuttal against the utility's and NRC staff's attacks upon its intervention. This included a backgrounder about Davis-Besse's many close calls with disaster over the past 34 years, compiled by Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps. According to various federal government spokespeople, from the NRC to the Department of Justice, Davis-Besse's hole in the head fiasco of 2002 was the worst incident at a U.S. atomic reactor since Three Mile Island Unit 2's 50% core meltdown in 1979.

A picture is worth a thousand words: Chernobyl, 25 years on

Chernobyl refugee, photo by Gabriela BulisovaThe 25th commemoration of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe on April 26, 2011 will be a big moment: the nuclear power establishment in industry, government, media, academia, etc. will try to downplay Chernobyl's significance, while others -- the anti-nuclear and environmental movements, survivors of the catastrophe, etc. -- will struggle to keep the truth alive. Photographers have done essential work in this struggle for the past quarter century, and still are doing so. For example, Danish photographer Mads Eskesen published Chernobyl - 20 Years, 20 Lives in 2006. (Eskesen has also shot amazing photos of the beautiful, collectively owned, 40 Megawatt-electric Middlegrunden Offshore Wind Farm near Copenhagen Harbor.)

Beyond Nuclear has partnered with social documentary photographer Gabriela Bulisova to exhibit her Chernobyl photos in Vermont and New Hampshire, at this crucial time in the campaigns to prevent license extensions at the Vermont Yankee and Seabrook nuclear power plants. Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps will speak at Bulisova's opening on Tuesday, April 26th at Dartmouth College's (Hannover, New Hampshire) Russo Gallery in Haldeman Hall in cooperation with Dartmouth's Dickey Center for International Understanding. The Director of the Dickey Center, Kenneth S. Yalowitz, who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Belarus from 1994-1997, will also speak, as will Dartmouth students from Ukraine. Denis Rydjeski, Programs and Outings Chair, and the SIERRA CLUB of the Upper Valley in Springfield, VT, have made this exhibit possible with a generous donation, as well as all the ground work. Bulisova's photos can be viewed online; clicking the links to individual photos will enlarge them; some photos have captions (the remaining captions will be added in the near future). Bulisova's title, "Life on the Edge...The Half-Lives and Half-Truths of Chernobyl," and her artist's statement, provide additional insights on the work.

The Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance, which has helped lead the grassroots effort to shut down the dangerously deteriorated and leaking reactor, also have plans to exhibit Bulisova's photos in Montpelier and other places in Vermont in the coming months. Stay tuned for details!

Robert Knoth, Amsterdam based social documentary photographer, has also documented the devastation caused by Chernobyl, as well as other nuclear disasters across the former Soviet Union. These photos have been exhibited around the world -- except, that is, in the U.S.! Robert has asked Beyond Nuclear's help in getting his work exhibited here. If you are interested in bringing Robert's powerful photos to your area, please contact Kevin at Beyond Nuclear's office number, (301) 270-2209 ext. 1.

National Geographic photographer Gerd Ludwig is also fundraising in order to return to Chernboyl to continue his "Long Shadow of Chernobyl" project.