Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal are touring the U.S. together this summer for the first time! The tour will benefit progressive organizations, including Beyond Nuclear. Please visit the "BonTaj"dedicated Web page to learn more about the tour and to cast your vote to decide which causes the tour should support. And please look for Beyond Nuclear information tables at select events.
As you know, reaching ever wider audiences is important for a number of reasons. We must educate as many people as possible about the real dangers of nuclear energy and contradict the false propaganda put out by the industry. We need to enlighten our political leaders and the media. We absolutely must ensure that nuclear power does not steal federal funding - via the Climate bill - that is so needed to support renewable energy. To achieve these goals and more, Beyond Nuclear needs to raise money.
We are privileged to have the support of one of this country's most dedicated activists and beloved actors, Ed Asner. He will appear for us in an ad due to run in The Nation magazine (draft version shown above). But to place this ad we need to raise funds. Will you please consider making a donation? Please donate now on line and let us know your contribution is to support the ad. Or you may mail us a contribution marked Nation ad to Beyond Nuclear, 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 400, Takoma Park, MD 20912.
The Nation readers are a perfect match for us. We need to reach them! Please help us by donating today.
Gov. Jim Gibbons of Nevada is urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to ensure Congress repeals the Nuclear Waste Policy Act that designates Yucca Mountain as a high-level nuclear dump. President Obama has supported the Yucca cancellation but Gibbons expressed impatience with the apparent slow progress. "Every few weeks or months we hear from someone in Congress that Yucca Mountain is dead, yet the project and the licensing process continue," Gibbons said. Gibbons reportedly told Reid to "put up or shut up" on working to stop Yucca while Reid's office fired back that "Gibbons has done very little as governor to advance the state's fight against Yucca Mountain."
Meanwhile, as previously reported on these pages, President Obama looks set to nominate a pro-Yucca candidate to a commission seat at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission if William Magwood - the rumored candidate - takes the job.
The half-built uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, has been canceled after the U.S. Department of Energy denied the application for a federal loan guarantee submitted by plant owner, U.S. Enrichment Company (USEC). The plant was scheduled to be fully operational by 2010 but had stalled due to uncertainty over funding. Its cancelation marks another step backward by the U.S. nuclear industry whose 21st Century Nuclear Retreat is falsely characterized by the industry as a "renaissance." Read more in the Washington Post.
The attempted nuclear power relapse has suffered yet another major blow with Thursday's announcement by Bruce Power that it will abandon plans to build five new reactors at its Bruce Nuclear Complex on the Lake Huron shoreline and at its Nanticoke Coal Power Plant on the Lake Erie shoreline. However, Bruce Power reaffirmed its intent to build numerous new reactors in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
August 4, 2009