Worth remembering - children should not have any strontium-90

Mourning the loss of Gene Case whose genius served many causes

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Gene Case on September 9th in New York. Case was one of the original geniuses of the "Mad Men" age of advertising and, in his later years, went on to found his agency, Avenging Angels, which produced ads and artwork for many progressive causes, including Beyond Nuclear (some samples are shown here). Earlier, Case founded the half-billion-dollar agency Jordan McGrath Case & Partners. Gene was also part of the creative team that produced the now famous short "daisy" television commercial  and the equally wry ice cream commercial for the 1964 Lyndon Johnson presidential campaign against Barry Goldwater. A full tribute to Gene Case will be coming soon, but we wanted to acknowledge the passing of a creative talent and a wonderful friend and human being.

100,000 take to the streets in Germany to protest nuclear power

As many as 100,000 anti-nuclear demonstrators took to the streets of Berlin on September 18 to voice their strong opposition to the Merkel government's decision to extend the licenses of the country's operating nuclear power plants. A human chain was formed around the government building and protesters also rallied at the railway station. The previous government had decided  to shut down all nuclear plants by 2021, but Merkel's coalition government plans to extend the deadline by 10-15 years. See also photos and a short video of the rally.

Update on September 21, 2010 by admin

The opposition Social Democrats have called for a change in the German constitution that will allow a national referendum on the future of nuclear energy in Germany. The SPD and the  Green party alsoplan to challenge the government’s decision in the constitutional court, on the grounds that the 16 federal states represented in the Bundesrat, the second parliamentary chamber, will not be consulted.

Dr. Howard Zinn makes the case for non-violent civil disobedience

In this tribute to the late Howard Zinn, Beyond Nuclear presents Dr. Zinn's compelling testimony in which he makes the case for non-violent civil disobedience as instrumental in changing American history and advancing democracy. Dr. Zinn testified for the defense at the criminal trial of the AVCO Plowshares 7. On July 14, 1983, the defendents hammered equipment and poured blood on blueprints for the Cruise Missile and Missile X in a factory in Wilmington, MA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx6QQOn4dQE

Bi-national environmental coalition demands U.S. Dept. of Transportation scrutinize risks of radioactive waste ship on Great Lakes

Detroit News graphic, Sept. 11, 2010A U.S.-Canadian environmental coalition has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, demanding that it perform a federally required National Environmental Policy Act examination of the risks associated with Bruce Power shipping 16 radioactive steam generators from its 8 reactor nuclear power plant on the Lake Huron shoreline in Ontario, via the remaining Great Lakes, across the Atlantic, to Sweden for melting down and mixing into the consumer product scrap metal recycling stream. The coalition also demands that PHMSA analyze the less dangerous alternative of a longstanding Canadian plan simply to store the steam generators indefinitely onsite. They demand this happen before granting a U.S. DOT permit for the shipment of these radioactive wastes through U.S. waters on the Great Lakes. As described in the coalition's press release, the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Cities Initiative has calculated that the radioactive cargo would violate International Atomic Energy Agency safety regulations for the amount of radioactivity allowed on a single ship by 50 times over. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, whose staff has described the shipment as of very low risk, will hold a hearing in Ottawa, Ontario beginning on Sept. 29th to receive public comment from concerned citizens. Over 75 such submissions have been made by groups from the U.S. and Canada, showing how concerned environmentalists are about this radioactive waste shipment on the Great Lakes. Beyond Nuclear has registered to provide oral testimony at the hearing on the comments it has submitted. A full size image of the map showing the route above appeared in the Detroit News on Sept. 11.