Nov. 25th Forum on the Decommissioning of Vermont Yankee in Montpelier

A message from Debra Stoleroff of Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance (VYDA):

After more than 40 years, our efforts have paid off and the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is closing in 2014 and will be decommissioned.  There are many ways to decommission a nuclear power plant; some more safe than others.

So, what does deliberate, thorough and responsible decommissioning mean?  What does it look like? And how can Vermont (and we) advocate for deliberate, thorough and responsible decommissioning with a greenfield when Vermont does not have a legal say in the process?

Deb Katz of the Citizens' Awareness Network (CAN) and Chris Williams of VCAN and VYDA will address what will happen to Vermont Yankee when it closes in 2014.  They will discuss transition, clean-up, long term waste storage and what role citizens can play In the process.

Join VYDA for a forum on The Decommissioning of Vermont Yankeewith Deb Katz, Executive Director of Citizens' Awareness Network  and Chris Williams, Director of VT Citizen's Action Network and member of VYDA

Monday, November 25,6:30 pm, at the Unitarian Church, 130 Main St., Montpelier
Sponsored by the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance

For more information call: (802) 476-3154

VY is a GE BWR Mark I, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4.

More.

"Nuclear giant taps wind tax credit that it's trying to kill"

Greenwire has published an article by Hannah Northey, E&E reporter, exposing the hypocricy of Exelon for exploiting the very wind power subsidy that it has attacked as giving the wind power industry an unfair competition advantage.

The article reports: "Amy Grace, a North American wind analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, pegged Exelon's wind PTCs [Production Tax Credits] for 2013 at $75 million to $100 million based on the company's 1.3 gigawatts of wind projects."

The American Wind Energy Association expelled Exelon from its membership in 2012 for Exelon's lobbying to kill the wind power production tax credit.

The IL reactors Exelon has identified as at risk of closing due to being outcompeted by wind power are: Clinton, Byron 1 & 2, and Quad Cities 1 & 2.

Quad Cities twin units are identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 -- GE BWR Mark Is.

The near-term risk of closure comes despite Quad Cities already receiving a 20-year operating license extension rubberstamp from NRC, and Byron 1 & 2 having applied for one as well.

Shedding light on NRC's nuke waste con game

Dr. Lewis Cuthbert, President of ACE (the Alliance for a Clean Environment) and, along with his wife Donna, longtime Limerick nuclear power plant watchdogs, has written an excellent Op-Ed to the Pottstown Mercury News.

Given Limerick's proximity to Philadelphia, and surrounding population density, the twin reactors' risks are among the worst in the U.S.

As identified in Beyond Nuclear's "Freeze Our Fukushimas" pamphlet, Limerick Units 1 & 2 are General Electric Mark IIs, very similar in design to Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 to 4's Mark Is. Since the beginning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe, Beyond Nuclear has joined with large numbers of grassroots allies living in the shadows of the 31 Mark Is and IIs in the U.S., calling for their immediate, permanent shutdown.

Beyond Nuclear maintains a website section on the "Freeze Our Fukushimas" campaign.

Beyond Nuclear updates on the campaign to counter NRC's Nuke Waste Con Game can be found at its Radioactive Waste website section.

Fukushima symposium with Japan's former Prime Minister Kan and expert panel

Renowned environmental journalist and Beyond Nuclear Board member, Karl Grossman wrote this report on a Fukushima-focused symposium he attended in New York, posting on the cutting edge anti-nuclear news site, Enformable.  Grossman describes the presentations by Naoto Kan, Japan's former Prime Minister -- who was in leadership during the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi -- and others on an expert panel at the October 8 New York event that was repeated in Boston on October 9 and was sponsored by the Samuel Lawrence Foundation. Former US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko, former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford, Fairewind's nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen and public advocate Ralph Nader, spoke out with Prime Minister Kan on the unacceptable consequences of the Fukushima disaster and called for the global phaseout of nuclear power.

New York State "hosts" the FitzPatrick and Nine Mile Point Unit 1 GE BWR Mark Is, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4. New York State also "hosts" Nine Mile Point Unit 2, a very similarly designed Mark II.

Massachusetts "hosts" the Pilgrim Mark I, very near Boston. Massachusetts in just 8 miles downstream from Vermont Yankee, another Mark I on the banks of the Connecticut River.

Update on October 11, 2013 by admin

Thom Hartman's The Big Picture on RT featured former Prime Minister Kan, and Fairewinds' Arnie Gundersen, on a segment entitled "Lessons from Fukushima" (see beginning at minute 15:12, till 27:14).

For those in NYC and Boston, a chance to hear Kan

THE FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR ACCIDENT: 
ONGOING LESSONS FOR BOSTON & NEW YORK

Former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Former Prime Minister of Japan join 
panel to discuss the risks of nuclear power at the Indian Point and Pilgrim Nuclear Power Stations
Two symposiums on Fukshima and Nuclear Power 
October 8th New York City & October 9th Boston

Featuring former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, former NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko, former NRC Commissioner Peter Bradford and nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen will speak on the impacts of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe and nuclear power in the United States. More details here.

New York State "hosts" the FitzPatrick and Nine Mile Point Unit 1 GE BWR Mark Is, identical in design to Fukushima Daiichi Units 1-4. New York State also "hosts" Nine Mile Point Unit 2, a very similarly designed Mark II.

Massachusetts "hosts" the Pilgrim Mark I, very near Boston. Massachusetts in just 8 miles downstream from Vermont Yankee, another Mark I on the banks of the Connecticut River.