Sierra Club National Board director Dr. Michael Dorsey in the WSJ: "NO: Nuclear Isn’t Clean—or Cheap"

Nuclear power is fizzling.

So begins a Wall Street Journal op-ed debate entitled "Is Nuclear Power Vital to Hitting CO2 Emissions Targets?"

Dr. Michael Dorsey, a director on the Sierra Club National Board, contributed the anti-nuclear, "NO: Nuclear Isn’t Clean—or Cheap."

Susan Tierney provided the pro-nuclear contribution, "YES: Renewables Can't Fill the Gap Yet." Although Tierney is described as "a senior adviser at the Analysis Group, an economic, financial and strategic consulting firm," what's not explicitly mentioned is that Tierney has served as a paid consultant and expert witness for numerous nuclear power utilities. This is clearly evident in her CV.

Radioactive waste: Webinar this evening on HLRW "centralized" interim storage & transport risks

On Thurs., Nov. 10 from 8-9:30 PM Eastern, presenters from Beyond Nuclear, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition, and Nuclear Information and Resource Service, will lead a Webinar focused on the dangers of so-called "centralized interim storage," as well as the risks of shipping irradiated nuclear fuel by road, rail, and waterway. Beyond Nuclear's presentation will be based on its testimony before a U.S. House hearing a year ago. The Webinar is pre-event preparation for a national grassroots strategy summit on high-level radioactive waste, to be held in Chicago, IL on Dec. 2-4. The summit is intended to analyze this week's presidential and congressional election results, to devise strategies and tactics to block de facto permanent parking lot dumps (such as the one targeted at Waste Control Specialists (WCS) in Andrews County, west Texas), as well as to keep the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nevada dumpsite dead, despite a long-simmering Republican campaign to resurrect it. Both industry-friendly schemes will now intensify on Capitol Hill in January; either one would launch unprecedented numbers of high-risk Mobile Chernobyls through most states (See WCS-bound shipment routes, left; or see larger map, here). Please pre-register for the Webinar to receive instructions on how to view/hear it, and submit your registration form for the Chicago summit ASAP, before all available participant slots are filled!

Update on November 11, 2016 by admin

Please note: the Webinar recording will be made available by NIRS ASAP. For now, please see Beyond Nuclear's Power Point Presentation, and our congressional testimony from a year ago, upon which the presentation was based.

The courage to make change

Shortly before he died, our board chair, Lou Friedman, sent along a card with a secular adaptation of the famous Niebuhr quote: "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." In light of the election results for President, Senate and House, we have had to give that message a lot of thought at Beyond Nuclear as it pertains to our mission. Acceptance is never the easy part, but what can we change? Nuclear energy is fading financially. That means it will pitch for huge subsidies. We will work to stop that. Even without a change of administration, efforts are underway to dump radioactive waste at targeted "temporary" sites. We will continue our efforts to block that, along with plans to transport highly radioactive liquid waste from Ontario to South Carolina. Old reactors are as dangerous today as they were yesterday. We will redouble our efforts to close them. We've written to many of you with our winter appeal. In that letter, you will find more details about our plans. Thank you as always for your support. We need it now more than ever to keep up the good fight! More

National bailout of U.S. atomic reactors based on NY approach would cost $280 billion by 2030

"Burning money" image, by Gene Case of Avenging Angels, was featured on The Nation's 2003 cover regarding the "Nuclear Power Relapse"Tim Judson, executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), has published a report entitled "Too Big to Bail Out: The Economic Costs of a National Nuclear Power Subsidy." Judson was joined on a press conference by former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Peter Bradford (listen to the recording here). Their analysis made clear that: nuclear power is not a viable climate strategy; more than half of U.S. reactors are expected to be uneconomical by 2020; and that this huge infusion of public funding for old nuclear plants would crowd out renewables. Meanwhile, in New York, the StopTheCuomoTax.org -- No Nuclear Bailout campaign has, most recently, issued an action alert, flown airplane banners, and erected billboards, to protest against the State of NY's agreement to pay $35 million of public money, if the transfer (from Entergy to Exelon) of the age-degraded, economically failing FitzPatrick reactor in upstate NY on the Lake Ontario shore is not finalized for certain reasons -- but state officials won't divulge what those reasons are (as reported by Syracuse.com). The campaign is now calling for New Yorkers to come to Albany on Thurs., Nov. 17th, to speak out at the Public Service Commission. More

Motion for Summary Judgement filed against Beyond Nuclear's legal challenge to unprecedented highly radioactive liquid waste shipments

In the case of BEYOND NUCLEAR, et al., Plaintiffs, v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [DOE], et al., Defendants, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed, on behalf of DOE, a DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT.

DOJ and DOE are trying to get the UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Beyond Nuclear and six other environmental groups.

Terry Lodge of Toledo, OH serves as legal counsel for the environmental coalition.

The coalition's rebuttal to the Nov. 4, 2016 DOJ/DOE MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT is due Nov. 22nd.