"NUKE DINOSAURS & SOLAR OUTRAGE arrive in Solartopia with astonishing implications"

Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear was honored to be invited back on Harvey Wasserman's "Solartopia Green Power and Wellness" radio show on PRN.

Here is Harvey's blurb about the show:

At Ohio's crumbling Davis-Besse nuke, KEVIN KAMPS tells us how this dying, decrepit reactor is demanding huge bail-outs from ratepayers and taxpayers because it cannot compete.  But now DAVE KRAFT reports that competing utility giants Exelon and Dynegy have filed claims saying they can provide power to Ohio far cheaper, leaving DB hopefully twisting in the wind.

Meanwhile, JUDY TREICHEL and STEVE FRISHMAN report from Nevada that the corrupt Public Utilities Commission has rolled back long-standing agreements and is conspiring to prevent homeowners from installing solar panels on their rooftops.  Public outrage is enormous, with thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investments being wasted on behalf on obsolete investments in King Cong (Coal, Oil, Nukes and Gas).

Similar push-back in Wisconsin is being perpetrated by the planet-killing fossil-nuke pushers who threaten us all.

You can listen to the audio recording here.

SNL: "Palisades plant critics vow to continue fight over 'thermal shock' issue" (risks extend to Pt. Beach, Indian Pt., Diablo, & Beaver Valley)

Entergy's Palisades atomic reactor, located on the Lake Michigan shoreline in southwest Michigan.SNL Financial has published an in-depth investigative article by Matthew Bandyk, "Palisades nuclear plant critics vow to continue fight over 'thermal shock' issue."

The article revealed that Palisades' previous owner, Consumers Energy, had planned to attempt to repair the severely neutron radiation embrittled reactor pressure vessel (RPV), by undertaking experimental, expensive annealing (super-heating the metal in an attempt to restore ductility) in the late 1990s, but decided not to, for fear of public backlash and/or legal intervention against the needed License Amendment Request. More.

Decreasing economies of scale put pressure on remaining Entergy Nuclear merchant reactors

As reported by Syracuse.com, Entergy Nuclear's top executive in charge of its fleet of merchant nuclear power plants, William Mohl, has admitted that its remaining atomic reactors are under increasing pressure, due to loss of economies of scale:

"We don't have any immediate plans (to change direction) on Indian Point, but you start to have to think about what will you do down the road if you have a single asset in the Northeast,'' he said. "You just have less economies of scale. We're looking at that and what we need to do in that regard.''

Although his context was Entergy's two unit Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City, in light of Entergy's recent rapid-fire decisions to close FitzPatrick in upstate NY (as early as a year from now, but hopefully sooner), and Pilgrim in MA (in mid-2019, but hopefully sooner), the same logic applies at Entergy's age-degraded, problem-plagued Palisades atomic reactor in MI as well. More.

Beyond Nuclear blasts billion dollar Davis-Besse bailout as "Faustian fission" due to cracked containment risks

"Burning money" graphic by Gene Case of Avenging Angels.Beyond Nuclear has published a media release in response to FirstEnergy and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) Staff announcing a settlement agreement for an eight-year, nearly $4 billion ratepayer bailout to prop up the utility's uncompetitive Davis-Besse atomic reactor, as well as a number of coal burning power plants. (See the Word version of Beyond Nuclear's media release, for live links.)

Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog also submitted a letter to the editor to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, opposing the bailout, and calling for Davis-Bess'e permanent shutdown. More.

"Nuclear power’s last stand in California: Will Diablo Canyon die?"

As reported by David R. Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has gotten cold feet about its 2009 application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a 20-year license extension at its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.

Diablo is encircled by earthquake fault lines. PG&E is still reeling from a natural gas pipeline explosion in 2010, which killed nine residents in San Bruno, CA. PG&E has focused on repairing its image after the fatal explosion, not on re-licensing Diablo.

'We've got a lot on our plates, and we just don't need to take on another big public issue right now,' said Tony Earley, PG&E Corp.'s CEO."

(Earley was CEO at Detroit Edison until 2011. He left that utility amidst its application to build a new reactor, Fermi 3, in southeast MI. Beyond Nuclear and environmental coalition allies have been fighting the Fermi 3 proposal since 2008.)

Especially in light of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, and its ongoing radioactivity releases into the Pacific Ocean, PG&E can expect a fight, if it attempts to extend Diablo's operating licenses, from groups such as San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth, Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, and others.

The article quotes a long time watchdog:

“It should be illegal,” said Linda Seeley, 71, a retired midwife who in the 1980s was arrested twice during mass demonstrations at Diablo’s gates. “They’re playing with fire, and the people who will get burned are the people who live here.”

The article highlights the role Diablo's lack of cooling towers, and consequent massive impact on aquatic life, will play in the license extension fight to come. Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter and Linda Gunter have reported on such impacts at Diablo in their report, Licensed to Kill.

With the closure of San Onofre 2 & 3 in southern CA in 2013, and the previous closures of CA's other atomic reactors, Diablo represents "nuclear power's last stand in California."