At Chernobyl, a warning for Japan

After a horrible piece last week - parroting the misleading "my coal is even more lethal than your nuclear" mantra which the nuclear industry loves (as if any people dying from these deadly industries is OK) - the Washington Post began to redeem itself this morning. A front page story - Chernobyl, a warning for Japan - discusses the scale of disease and the neglect of the liquidators and others around the exploded reactor. The story touches on the level of denial by the Ukrainian authorities that has left its affected population without medical help and compensation. A box accompanying the article details the genetic mutations and shortened lifespans of wildlife in the Chernobyl zone.

Urge PHMSA to undertake Programmatic EIS on water-borne radioactive waste shipments!

Cynthia L. Quarterman, Admin., US DOT Pipelines and Haz. Mat. Safety Admin. (PHMSA)The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is the federal agency that must approve Bruce Power's controversial and risky proposed shipment of 16 radioactive steam generators, originating in Ontario and bound for Sweden, before it enters U.S. territorial waters on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. PHMSA is infamous for its negligence in major oil pipeline leaks into rivers, deadly natural gas pipeline explosions, and the cozy relationships between the agency's top leadership and the very companies and industries PHMSA is supposed to regulate. Thanks to 7 Great Lakes U.S. Senators, it was revealed that PHMSA has previously rubberstamped approvals for 17 water-borne shipments of large, radioactive nuclear components in the past. These shipments travelled on rivers, bays, and sea coasts across the U.S., and even on the waters of Lake Michigan. PHMSA very quietly granted "approvals or special permits" for shipping radioactive steam generators, reactor pressure vessels, pressurizers, and reactor vessel heads with little or no notice to, or attention from, the public, media, emergency responders, or elected officials. Given the radiological risks of these shipments, and the precedent they set for shipping high-level radioactive wastes by water, PHMSA must undertake a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This should include an adequate period for submission of public comments, including public hearings across the U.S. in places that have been targeted in the past for such shipments, or could be in the future. Contact PHMSA Administrator Cynthia L. Quarterman, urging her to undertake a PEIS -- including a public comment period and public hearings -- in order to fully comply with NEPA, as she assured the U.S. Senators that she would. You can email her at phmsa.administrator@dot.gov; fax her at (202) 366-3666; phone her at (202) 366-4433; or send her a letter at Cynthia L. Quarterman, Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, East Building, 2nd Floor, Mail Stop: E27-300, 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE, Washington, DC 20590. Also, contact your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and request that they urge PHMSA Administrator Quarterman to do a PEIS as well. Additional information on the Bruce Power radioactive steam generator shipment from Canada to Sweden can be found on Beyond Nuclear's Canada website section.

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.

Radioactive "cargo" on the Great Lakes would violate Haudenosaunee 7th Generation Philosophy

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River contain 20% of the world's surface fresh water.An op-ed in the Toronto Star by associate professor of environment at the University of Toronto, Stephen Bede Scharper, points out that in addition to being the drinking water supply and source of fisheries, the Great Lakes are also the source of emotional and spiritual sustenance for more than 35 million people in the U.S., Canada, and numerous Native American First Nations. Thus it's easy to see how Bruce Power's shipment of 16 plutonium-contaminated steam generators on the Great Lakes, approved by the Canadian Nuclear Safety (sic) Commission on Feb. 4th, would violate not only the Haudenosaunee Seventh Generation Spiritual Philosophy, but also the Preautionary Principle. Speaking of the Haudenosaunee, the Mohawk Nations have spoken out strongly against this shipment, as have a number of other First Nations coalitions in Ontario and Quebec. The fight now may now be moving into the Canadian courts, as well as to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. PHMSA's approval is required before the shipment can enter U.S. waters on the Great Lakes. A growing environmental coalition is calling on PHMSA to undertake a full Environmental Impact Statement, complete with public heaings and a public comment period.

KIMO lambasts proposal for BP radioactive waste shipment to traverse European waters

Canadian BP wants to ship 16 of these 100 ton radioactive steam generators across the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean.KIMO (Kommunenes Internasjonale Miljøorganisasjon, which translates as Local Authorities International Environmental Organisation) -- a European environmental coalition of municipal authorities dedicated to protecting their marine environment homelands -- has spoken out strongly against Bruce Power's (BP) proposal to ship 16 plutonium-contaminated steam generators to Sweden for so-called "recycling." The Studsvik radioactive metal "recycling" facility -- besides contaminating the recycled metal supply with hazardous radioactivity -- also spews radioactive discharges into the Baltic Sea, which does not sit well with KIMO. As also reported on its homepage, KIMO has also spoken out against the hazards of so-called "floating" nuclear power plants, as proposed by the Russian nuclear establishment (the French nuclear establishment, for its part, has proposed underwater atomic reactors for deployment on the ocean floor -- perhaps to complement the radioactive waste its La Hague reprocessing facility already spews into the English Channel?!).