FOE, Greenpeace, Sierra Club: "Nuclear Power Is a Losing Proposition"

In an op-ed published in the Miami Herald, the Executive Directors of Greenpeace U.S.A. and Sierra Club (Annie Leonard and Michael Brune, respectively), and the President of Friends of the Earth U.S.A. (Erich Pica), have listed the many reasons why nuclear power cannot solve the climate crisis: it costs too much; takes too long; is not safe to operate in a time of worsening natural disasters; and there is no solution for the radioactive waste problem. The good news, however, they report, is that renewable energy, like wind and solar power, as well as energy efficiency, are fully capable of replacing fossil fuels in the electricity production sector.

To that list of insurmountable problems with dirty, dangerous, and expensive nuclear power is age-related degradation of atomic reactors. Sierra Club and its Nuclear-Free Michigan campaign just submitted a friend of the court brief to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on behalf of Beyond Nuclear et al., urging the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) hearing at Entergy Nuclear's Palisades to go forward, regarding age-related degradation of the safety-significant reactor pressure vessel (RPV). RPV degradation is a worsening risk at many reactors, including Point Beach Unit 2 in WI, Indian Point Unit 3 in NY, Diablo Canyon Unit 1 in CA, Beaver Valley Unit 1 in PA, and Davis-Besse, OH.