Beyond Nuclear warns U.S. is unprotected from Fukushima-style nuclear disaster 5 years after meltdowns in Japan

Beyond Nuclear, in a press release today, decried the absence of reasonable plans to prevent and protect against a nuclear disaster in the U.S., five years after the March 11, 2011 triple meltdowns began at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

More than 32 million Japanese have been exposed to Fukushima's radioactive fallout. Close to 160,000 people were forced to evacuate, many of whom are being urged to return — under threat of loss of compensation -— into areas the government claims to have “cleaned up”.  Costs have ballooned to at least $100 billion and will soar higher once economic losses, compensation and decommissioning costs are factored in. 

In the U.S., 30 GE Mark I and Mark II boiling water reactors identical in design to those at Fukushima, are still in operation.  While the GE model is considered the most vulnerable to catastrophic failure, every operating U.S. reactor poses a risk.  Beyond Nuclear launched its Freeze our Fukushimas campaign shortly after the Japan disaster to get the GE reactors shut down. 

“Not only is there no Plan B for what to do if and when a Fukushima-style disaster happens in the U.S., there is no Plan A to prevent one either,” said Cindy Folkers, Radiation and Health Specialist at Beyond Nuclear.  Public health is woefully under-protected she said. Read the full press release. 

Beyond Nuclear on TRT, debating nuclear power with industry lawyer

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps was hosted on Turkish Radio and Television's (TRT) program "The Newsmakers." He squared off against attorney Elina Teplinsky, a parnter at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Pillsbury, which serves as legal counsel to the nuclear power industry, domestically and internationally. The debate was on nuclear power's present status, and future prospects, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. Watch the debate during the first 16 minutes of the recording; also, the final minute of the episode has the host of the show recapping the nuclear power debate.

Wonderful news from Green Action in Japan: two operating reactors shut down under court order!

Aileen Mioko Smith, Executive Director, Green Action KyodoAs explained in a YouTube video by Green Action Kyodo's Executive Director, Aileen Mioko Smith (photo, left), amidst a celebration parade, Japan's anti-nuclear movement has scored another unprecedented, miraculous victory: the court-ordered shutdown of two reactors, Units 3 and 4, at Takahama nuclear power plant. The court's ruling came on the very eve of the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe.

As the video states: Japanese citizens celebrate the shutting down of an operating nuclear power plant. Citizens living up to 70 kilometers away (approximately 45 miles) sued Kansai Electric, and won! We want to protect Kyoto's cultural heritage from radioactive contamination. We want to protect the largest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa, the water for 14 million people.

The New York Times' Jonathon Soble has reported on this story.

See more updates about Japan's nuclear situation.

Exelon takeover of Pepco on brink of collapse!

Sept. 17, 2015 PowerDC rally against Exelon takeover of Pepco, before marching to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office to deliver the hand-signed banner.As reported by the Washington Post, Chicago-based Exelon Nuclear and Mid-Atlantic utility Pepco have filed "last-ditch" proposals to save their $6.8 billion merger from imminent defeat. But the proposals lack support from any other party to the D.C. Public Service Commission (PSC) proceeding, including D.C.'s mayor, attorney general, and Office of Public Counsel. The proposals have been previously rejected by the D.C. PSC, multiple times. And they would up-end a proceeding that has been under way for two years already, providing the public with an absurdly short one-week time period in which to comment.

Although Exelon President and CEO, Chris Crane, had said recently to investors that he would walk away from the takevoer if it weren't settled by March 4, he has now urged the DC PSC to agree to the new bad deal by April 7.

PowerDC, a coalition of environmental, public interest, and ratepayer groups, urges D.C. residents and ratepayers to take action, to block Exelon's bad deal, once and for all.

Florida nuclear plant that sucked in scuba diver has violated law for a decade

TAKOMA PARK, MD, March 7, 2016 -- A Florida nuclear power plant that sucked a scuba diver through its unprotected cooling intake pipe, is in ongoing violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Beyond Nuclear and the Rachel Carson Council have charged.  

The incident at the St. Lucie Nuclear Generating Station on Hutchinson Island, Florida, is the second entrainment of a human at the plant.  The first occurred in 1989.  However, the plant’s intake system has for decades routinely captured, harmed and killed thousands of marine animals, most notably endangered and threatened species of sea turtle as well as manatees and other protected species.  The plant is owned by Florida Power & Light (FPL).

“Sucking in the scuba diver exposes that FPL has failed to act for almost a decade on its ongoing violations of the Endangered Species Act,” said Paul Gunter, Director of Reactor Oversight at Beyond Nuclear, the national group of record that watchdogs the environmental damage caused by nuclear power.  “Federal law establishes the terms of FPL’s operating license to set limits on the number of protected marine species that it kills and injures that are caused by power plant operations,” he said.   

In 2006 St. Lucie drew in 662 sea turtles, 22 of which FPL admits were killed by the plant’s operation.  FPL has been obligated to limit the number of endangered species killed by the plant’s intake system since its operating license was amended in 2001.  

Read the full press release.